I have seen brilliant Chinese speakers, average speakers and non-speakers among my foreign friends here. What I have seen from them is these brilliant speakers enjoy a really wonderful life here. They go deep into the Chinese society, enjoy every advantage they could dream of on this wonderful land of new opportunities. From them and my own struggle with it; I learned a lot of lessons about improving this difficult language. And I am more than happy to share it with you.

1. Attend a formal Chinese class

Do not listen to any excuses you mind says when you prepare to sign up with a formal Chinese language course. Perhaps an APP or online course is telling you to skip the class and save time on their free or premium APP or online course. May be you find an amazing guy who tell you that he learned the language himself. DO NOT LISTEN them. Nothing can replace the fundamentals you learn from a formal Chinese class. I live in 21st century, I do online shopping, online learning, online earning, online dating … etc, but I still did not find anything close to the support I got from my theory class at Huajiachi Campus of Zhejiang University when it is about learning the language. An amazing old lady taught us the language on a black board using old style calcium chalk, it was amazing. Nothing can replace traditional teaching when it comes to learning the fundamentals of a language, specially a difficult one.

2. Go out alone

Do not hang around with your own country mates. I have seen a lot of people make this mistake. You mind will always follow the easiest path. If you hang around with your own people, you will master none but your own mother tongue. When you go out alone you will have no other option, you will have to talk. It is like you jump into a swimming pool without a floating aid. You will have to struggle a bit to keep floating. In most of places, it is really safe out there in China. No worries. Go out alone. Talk to people.

3. Radio therapy

No it is not that one which is for cancer cases. This is a new one I invented to improve my listening and speaking ability. Forget about radio on internet, and also the radio on mobile. For radio therapy you need an old style FM radio. It is coming with no distraction. Radio on internet or mobile will distract you, you will check wechat, facebook and other websites, and you will not fully focus on radio. You need full concentration for this. Do this on you bed, go to bed closing you laptop and even mobile (at least switch off internet of mobile), and then listen to a talk show which usually going in night. Talkative girls and boys host these shows, they speak like a waterfall. Keep listing for one hour. This will do an amazing impact for your deeper mind. You will amazed by the result of the radio therapy when you do this for several weeks.

4. Boost your confidence

You will amaze when you realize this to yourself. The self-confidence plays a huge role in speaking this language. Do not start a conversation with a Chinese stranger with a complex sentence. If he/she does not understand what you are telling, he will look into you after that point with clouded mind that you cannot speak properly. You will also lose your confidence. Start with a short and easy dialog. Ni Hao, is a good start. Because, when you say it, they will start receiving the next sentence from you. Always go with several friendly lines before you go into deep details. Do not worry too much, communication among Chinese itself also complex as still a huge fraction of natives speak their dialects. Keep your confidence and go forward. You may be better than some of native Chinese out there on this land.

Finally it is a bit struggle, however if you manage sky is the limit for you. Good luck.