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I'm Learning MandarinAuthor: Mi Kai
I'm Learning Mandarin is a podcast that dives deep into the questions that matter to Chinese learners. Host, Mischa Wilmers, talks to the world's leading scholars and draws on his experience of self-studying the language to fluency. Visit the Im Learning Mandarin blog. Popular posts include: Your Ultimate Guide To Learning Chinese Tones: https://imlearningmandarin.com/2024/09/16/its-never-too-late-to-learn-chinese-tones-heres-how/ How Long Does It Take To Learn Mandarin: https://imlearningmandarin.com/2024/09/09/reality-check-can-you-actually-master-mandarin-in-six-months/ Language: en-gb Genres: Education, Language Learning Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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British Guy Interviews His Chinese Mother-in-Law ENTIRELY in Mandarin
Thursday, 16 April, 2026
Links: Download your fluency cheat sheet for free: http://imlearningmandarin.com/Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t567D6nPXV8ILM founder, Mischa's blog documenting his incredible Mandarin progress with recordings: https://imlearningmandarin.com/2023/0...--After years of studying Chinese, Lewys still couldn't hold a single conversation with his Chinese mother-in-law. In this video, he shares the full story - and proves how far he's come with an interview conducted entirely in Mandarin.When Lewys first started learning Chinese, he did everything "right": regular lessons, HSK study, consistent practice. But every time he stepped outside the classroom, nobody could understand him. It all came to a head during what he calls the most awkward car journey of his life - picking his mother-in-law up from the airport and being met with blank stares. She couldn't understand Lewys, who lives in the UK, was busy a senior job and a young daughter. He was on the verge of quitting when he discovered I'm Learning Mandarin founder Mischa who learned Mandarin while living in the UK - and crucially, recordings of how Mischa used to sound before he used effective methods (see blogpost link above). That's when everything changed.Lewys joined the ILM coaching programme and identified two critical mistakes he'd been making:Learning content that had nothing to do with his real lifeNeglecting native pronunciation and tonesOn the programme, Lewys was supported to build his Personalised Immersion Learning System — a four-step method:🔵 Collect — gather Mandarin audio and sentences you'll actually use🔵 Immerse — absorb the content through spaced repetition and loops🔵 Mimic — copy native pronunciation until you're truly understood🔵 Use — apply what you've learned in real conversationsAfter one year of consistent practice, Lewys went from barely being understood to interviewing his mother-in-law entirely in Chinese - on her home turf in China.
