Articles in the ‘Immersion and integration’ category
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Student Q&A: March, 2025: Chinese slang, leaving expat bubbles, and competing with other learners
Is learning Chinese slang worth your time? What do you do when someone with less study time speaks better than you? And how can you escape the expat bubble and start learning Mandarin?
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Learning Chinese by playing board games
Board games are more than just fun, they’re a powerful way to learn Chinese, boosting vocabulary, fluency, and communication skills!
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Love and language: Challenges and opportunities in learning Chinese with a partner
Some say that dating a native speaker is the ultimate shortcut to fluency. “You’ll learn effortlessly with a teacher always by your side!” But is learning Chinese with a partner really the silver bullet it’s often made out to be?
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The Input Pyramid: Chinese Listening for Any Situation
Most students of Chinese find listening comprehension a challenge. To truly become a fluent listener, use the Input Pyramid to rethink and upgrade your listening practice!
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Welcome to The Fluent Listener, a new course from Hacking Chinese!
Develop essential Mandarin listening skills with my new course, The Fluent Listener. Enrol by February 16 for lifetime access to video lessons, curated resources, tailored guidance, and a supportive learning community.
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Student Q&A: February, 2025: Improving listening ability quickly, using transcripts, and understanding rapid Mandarin
How do you improve listening ability as quickly as possible? Are there any strategies to deal with rapid speech? And how many times should you listen before using a transcript?
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The three roads to mastering Chinese
You might assume there are many roads to mastery in Chinese, but in truth, there are only three.
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What native speakers know about Chinese (and what they don’t)
You say something in Mandarin, a native speaker corrects you, and you adjust. The next day, another native speaker tells you to revert to your original phrasing. What’s going on? Let’s explore what native speakers know and what they don’t!
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Four key principles to improve your Mandarin listening comprehension
Listening is the cornerstone of language learning, yet many students struggle to improve their Mandarin listening comprehension. Fortunately, making progress isn’t as difficult as you might think; just follow four key principles!
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Student Q&A, November 2024: Pros and cons of digital tools for Chinese reading, and the struggle to find comprehensible and interesting texts
Is reading digitally in Chinese better than on paper? What are the best digital tools for reading? And what should you do if you can’t find texts that are both interesting and at the right level?
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