Speak every day
Tutor, AI partner, the street
From day one, badly. Use AI for volume, humans for everything real — don't pay a human for reps, and don't ask an AI to be the street.
Tutor sessions: short and often
Four or five 25-minute lessons beat two long ones — more days you speak, less time in a chair. You talk 70% of the time. Record every lesson and re-listen on tomorrow's commute.
- 01Warm-upChinese only. Tutor asks about your day; you answer.3 min
- 02Topic talkYou picked the topic in advance. Tutor lets you struggle, then gives you what you needed.10 min
- 03CorrectionThe 2–3 most important errors from today. Drill them.5 min
- 04New materialPhrases you'd have wanted for today's topic — or one grammar pattern.5 min
- 05RecapYou summarise what you learned. In Chinese. Broken is fine.2 min
Weeks 1–2 are different: three pronunciation clinics on the first pinyin units, then one role-played real situation per lesson — opening with five minutes on the day's sounds. The tutor plays the local: slowly, then at real speed, then with a curveball.
On a budget? Three lessons a week, AI conversation on the other evenings, and a language exchange at the weekend — in person or on HelloTalk.
Send this to your tutor before lesson one
Hi! I live in China, and my goal is to speak and understand everyday Chinese as fast as possible — reading and writing can wait. Our lessons are short (25 minutes), so could you please: • speak Chinese about 90% of the time, slowly and simply • let me talk for at least 70% of the lesson • not interrupt every mistake — note the 2–3 most important ones and drill them at the end • type new phrases in the chat with pinyin, so I can add them to my flashcards • let me record our lessons • keep explanations short — examples rather than grammar talk I'm starting with pinyin, one unit a day: tones, then the puff of air (b/p, z/c, j/q…), then where the tongue goes (j q x, z c s, zh ch sh r), then vowels, -n/-ng and tone changes. Lessons 1–3: pronunciation clinics on that day's unit. Please fix my initials, finals and tones — and record my survival phrase list as audio. After that: five minutes on the day's sounds, then role-play real situations (restaurant, taxi, shop, delivery, directions). You play the local — first slowly, then at normal speed. Thank you!
Your AI partner
Voice conversation with unlimited patience is the cheapest speaking practice there is. Rehearse tomorrow's street task with Doubao 豆包: same scene three times, a little faster each time, then ask for your three most important mistakes — they go into your flashcards.
“Be my Chinese practice partner. I'm a beginner — use only very simple Chinese, one or two sentences at a time, slowly. Let's practise ordering in a restaurant; you're the waiter. When we finish, tell me my three most important mistakes.”
Use the country, don't just live in it
The default is an English bubble — apps, colleagues, pointing — with Chinese as ambient noise. Every errand you outsource is a rep you lose. Engineer three a day — breakfast, lunch, one errand — and climb one rung a week.
- Wk 1Greet, point, order, pay: 你好 · 我要这个 · 我扫你 · 谢谢
- Wk 2Ask prices and places; tell a taxi driver where to go
- Wk 3Order without pointing; add one follow-up question; introduce yourself to your regulars
- Wk 4Ask a stranger for directions and follow them; collect a parcel with 取件码
- Wk 5Barber or pharmacy: describe what you want, or how you feel
- Wk 6A five-minute chat with a driver or shop owner — food, the city, their hometown
- Wk 7Fix a problem in Chinese: a wrong order, a return, something broken at home
- Wk 8A 10–15 minute conversation at a language exchange or with a regular
- Become a regular at three places — a café, a noodle shop, a fruit stall. Same staff, same script, a little more each visit.
- When a restaurant has QR-code ordering, ask the staff anyway. Apps remove exactly the reps you need.
- Taxi drivers are often happy to talk. Open with 师傅，您是哪里人？ — “where are you from?” — and let them go.
- One Chinese-only social setting a week: a language exchange, a sports group, a class.
- In week 6, switch one app you know well — maps or food delivery — to Chinese. By then the survival characters make it workable.
- Know your local accent. Across much of the south, zh/ch/sh drift toward z/c/s, n and l merge, and -ing sounds like -in. Ask your tutor and regulars how people say things where you live.
What's AI, what's human
Humans remain irreplaceable for everything real — being understood or not, local speed and mess, corrections chosen by someone who knows you.
- Per-syllable scoring of tones, initials and finals
- Unlimited speaking reps with zero social cost
- Rehearsing tomorrow's real situation, as often as you like
- Slowing down, repeating, explaining the word you missed
- Scheduling reviews so words stick
- Available at 11 pm on the metro
- Seeing what your tongue is doing — and showing you where it goes
- Real comprehension: were you actually understood?
- Local accents, speed and mess that AI smooths away
- Social pressure that makes phrases stick
- Corrections that matter, chosen by someone who knows you
- The look on a face when you fail — the lesson that lasts