| Hi, welcome to ChineseClass101.com! |
| Today, we're going to talk about 10 Ways to Motivate Yourself When Learning Chinese. |
| So for myself, I am living in Japan now and I don't usually have motivation for studying Japanese, so I will try to motivate myself by imagining when I speak fluently in Japanese, I'd look very cool, and I will buy some new book and I will buy very cute stationery, cute book, very creative... the sticker... Post-it, right? I will buy... creative post-it. There's so many creative stationery in Japan, you will be amazed. So I will use different ways to motivate myself to learn Japanese. |
| So today, I'm gonna motivate you, I'm gonna share with you 10 ways to motivate yourself while learning Chinese. Learning a language is not easy, so 加油！(Jiāyóu!) |
| 1. 我想象着有一天我会游览或住在中国！ |
| (Wǒ xiǎngxiàngzhe yǒu yìtiān wǒ huì yóulǎn huò zhùzài zhōngguó!) |
| "I imagine that one day I will visit or live in China!" |
| So for my personal experience, when came to Japan I couldn't speak the language well, my life is quite miserable sometimes because you couldn't avoid misunderstanding and we'll do something offensive and you completely believe it's not your fault, but you make somebody angry and you couldn't explain yourself, that feels very difficult for me, that's the most difficult part for me. Especially when you are living in Japan, because Japanese are kind of strict. Yeah, so, if you don't speak the language, even you don't speak the language well, because they have respectful language so you easily make people feel mad, or miscommunication, misunderstanding. So if you plan go to China one day, or you want to visit China, you want to enjoy China more, you better speak better Chinese for your own sake so you could enjoy this country to the fullest extent, and you will get more friends, and will get more fun for sure. |
| 2. 我也喜欢学习中国文化，这样使得学习中文变得更加有趣。 |
| (Wǒ yě xǐhuan xuéxí zhōngguó wénhuà, zhèyàng shǐde xuéxí zhōngwén biàn de gèngjiā yǒuqù.) |
| "I like to study the Chinese culture too, so it gets more interesting in Chinese language studies." |
| I still remember my strongest motivation for speaking English fluently. Directly, it's from watching the drama Friends and Sex In The City, maybe? Because I want to speak like them and I want to understand the humor. I want to understand the culture behind the humor so that makes me want to study English harder at that time. Yeah, especially in my initial stage of English study. |
| Find something in Chinese culture which interests you so you could use it as a motivation to study Chinese language. |
| 3. 我观看有代表性的中国菜的视频。 |
| (Wǒ guānkàn yǒu dàibiǎo xìng de zhōngguó cài de shìpín.) |
| "I watch videos of typical Chinese cuisine." |
| So if you can speak Chinese very well, you can watch so many videos where a Chinese chef teach you how to cook authentic Chinese food. Because I know there are some famous Chinese dishes where you can order at famous Chinese restaurant in foreign countries, which we Chinese do not even know, like orange chicken, maybe? We do not really have this food in China, at least for my experience, I never seen this dish called orange chicken in Chinese restaurant, but it is not bad. |
| 4. 我和说中文的人交朋友。 |
| (Wǒ hé shuō zhōngwén de rén jiāo péngyǒu.) |
| "I make friends with people who speak Chinese." |
| So think about it, China has the largest population in the world and all over the world, how convenient, how fun is that to speak to so many people, to be able to communicate with so many different people, such a variety all over the world. Because not only Chinese speak Chinese, but Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia... So we have many people who can speak Chinese. I think, as a Chinese learner, maybe that could be the strongest motivation for you to learn. |
| 5. 我观看其他成功学习中文的人的网络视频。 |
| (Wǒ guānkàn qítā chénggōng xuéxí zhōngwén de rén de wǎngluò shìpín.) |
| "I watch internet videos of other people who have succeeded in learning Chinese. " |
| Personally, I never used this as my motivation because when I started to study English, the internet hasn't been so popular as much as today. So on YouTube, many people are sharing their personal successful experiences in picking up a language, so maybe you can learn from them. And at least you can get some motivation from their experience in learning a language successfully. |
| 6. 在中国餐馆我喜欢用中文点菜！ |
| (Zài zhōngguó cānguǎn wǒ xǐhuan yòng zhōngwén diǎn cài!) |
| "I enjoy using Chinese to order at Chinese restaurants!" |
| I think it could be a very special benefit for learning Chinese. The special thing about Chinese restaurants, Chinese dishes which are available in that Chinese restaurant and not already in the menu. so that's why you can always see some Chinese guests, once you're going to their restaurant and they will order something which are not on the menu. So please take advantage of your Chinese to order something, to ask them something which is not on the menu. Maybe you will get lucky to gather food. Yeah, even if it’s not within the restaurant (menu), it's very common. So maybe for, my guess, every Chinese restaurant has a secret menu which is only for Chinese-speaking people, or for the people who are familiar with Chinese dishes. |
| 7. 我大声地唱中文歌！ |
| (Wǒ dàshēng de chàng zhōngwéngē!) |
| "I sing Chinese songs out loud!" |
| So for Chinese songs, I have my foreigner friends who feel really confused about how do we sing songs in Chinese. Because Chinese language have tones, four tones; but also when you sing, you have rhythm, so how do you combine it? How do you mix it? How do you make it even feel natural? How do you understand that? |
| I don't know how to answer this question, it just comes very naturally and we do not have any problem in singing Chinese songs even it has tones. I guess once your Chinese language level get to upper level or medium level, you will feel it's not a difficult thing to do. So don't feel intimidated by that, don't let that become a barrier for you to learning Chinese songs, it's not that difficult. |
| 8. 我阅读中国的名言警句。 |
| (Wǒ yuèdú zhōngguó de míngyán jǐngjù.) |
| "I read Chinese motivation quotes." |
| So with China's 5,000 years of history, we have so many countless motivation quotes in every era, so enjoy it. Maybe you'll find another motivation among those quotations. |
| 9. 我观看中国的旅游景点的视频。 |
| (Wǒ guānkàn zhōngguó de lǚyóu jǐngdiǎn de shìpín.) |
| "I watch videos of tourist places in China." |
| If you master Chinese, you get access to more videos about Chinese tourist places, so you could understand, you can watch more videos regarding Chinese interesting places. |
| 10. 我挑战自己每天背十个中文单词。 |
| (Wǒ tiǎozhàn zìjǐ měitiān bèi shíge zhōngwén dāncí.) |
| "I challenge myself to memorize ten new words a day in Chinese." |
| So if you feel your life is too boring and you want some find some challenge, you can find Chinese language learning as your challenge, because it's... their system, the writing system, the grammatical system is different from English, you can find this as your challenge and this will definitely be good. |
| I’ll see you next time, bye! |
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