Learn How to Speak Chinese Fluently

By Thinking in Chinese

This is a concept that a lot of people haven’t heard about it, but it’s a great way to improve you language skills. In this article you will find out the way to learn how to speak Chinese fluently by thinking in Chinese.

Did you notice when you speak Chinese you usually speak slower than your normal speaking speed and even get stuck sometime when you don’t know how to say a word? Let’s replay the process of how you speak Chinese. First when you want to speak a sentence in Chinese. What language would pop up to your brain?

Your native language! And then you would translate this sentence from your native language to Chinese word by word, after that you will organize the sentence structure with grammar. Finally, you speak out the sentence after going through the “production line”. Don’t you think it takes a lot of energy and time? And if there is one word you don’t know how to say in Chinese, then you get stuck. This will make you very tired when speak Chinese and your listener will be tired as well.

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If you want to speak Chinese fluently, there is one skill you must master. That is thinking in Chinese. That means when you speak Chinese, you could think in Chinese. You don’t need to translate, your brain can directly response in Chinese language. Thinking in Chinese is challenging, but it’s not impossible.

I have been teaching both English and Chinese for years. I am teaching Chinese in a Total Immersion school. Whenever students asked me questions I would explain to them in Chinese only. However, there were some students who couldn’t understand it no matter how I explain. They had the mindset that they had to understand it in their native language, otherwise they always felt unsure about the words.

I found out that students who are willing to try to understand Chinese in Chinese are always learning faster than others. Those students who had to understand this language in their native language usually didn’t have problems at the beginner levels, but when they were moving up to intermediate levels they would have a lot of difficulties. And if they want to change their habit, it would be more difficult. This also happened to my students who are learning English.

How can you get the habit of thinking in Chinese? The basic of thinking in Chinese is to understand Chinese in Chinese and also be able to explain it in Chinese. What you can do is to use a Chinese to Chinese dictionary to check words. In that way, you will see how to explain Chinese in Chinese. This is a very good tool to learn new word in Chinese.

“What? But…but…..” I know what you are thinking and this is the typical response from people when I tell them about this. You probably are wondering when you check a new word there are probably another two or three new words from the definition.

Anyway I don’t suggest beginners to use Chinese dictionary now. But what you can do is to look for the words you already know in the Chinese dictionary. Because you already know the meaning in English or your mother tongue, and then you can look up the Chinese definition to see how you can explain words in Chinese. This is a great way to train your brain to think in Chinese. 

This is just the first step to learn how to think in Chinese. You can start to practice immediately now and I will share more tips in details on this site about learn how to speak Chinese fluently by thinking in Chinese. However, this is just one of the skill can help you speed up your learning you still need to having an systematic course with learn from. Click the link below to check out an ultimate Chinese course.

Click here to check out an ultimate Chinese Course