Matthew thought that if he could learn Chinese (notoriously known to be difficult for English speakers), he could learn any language. He started learning Chinese with Glossika, and is now comfortable having conversations with the native Chinese speakers he encounters in real life. We talked to Matthew about his language learning routine and motivation.
I grew up in a secluded town in Australia. When I was 11 years old, I went to a summer camp in Brazil and there were all these eleven-year-olds from different countries. That was a really cool experience, seeing how different people are. So when I came back to my hometown, I thought: oh my gosh is this all that's here? I felt like everything was so mundane. Australia is very monolingual in general, but the town I grew up in was very Caucasian dominated. There's like no one else there, and everybody speaks English. It was only when I moved to Melbourne, the inner city, when I met a more diverse crowd of people.
I started my language learning with French. I studied French at high school, mostly with textbooks, taking a more traditional language learning route. It was a slow process. At some point my family member recommended that I try Glossika. She has been learning Chinese on and off for 10 years, and she used Glossika as one of her resources. I decided to dig deeper into the method — looked into Glossika on Youtube — and I thought that this might really work for me. And I decided to give it a shot. At the beginning, it was a leap of faith.
I didn't really pursue French beyond that, but I still remember some of the sentences that I learned on Glossika during that initial period of time. I found myself really wanting to start studying Chinese, so I switched Glossika over from French to Chinese about three years ago.
Why I chose to learn Chinese
I started learning Chinese for lots of reasons. My family member studied Chinese medicine, so we had all these Chinese philosophy books around the house. I started reading these books at some point, and took my first interest in Chinese from there.
I also did Latin in high school, so I thought that it would be cool to also learn classical Chinese at some point. So that was actually one of my end goals: to learn classical Chinese. I know classical Chinese and Chinese aren't really that similar, so I thought it would probably be appropriate to try and learn Chinese first and do classical Chinese after. In general, Chinese is like a gateway language that will help me learn other languages like Japanese. And I thought if I can learn Chinese (notoriously known to be difficult for English speakers), then I can learn any language.
Another reason is I feel like Chinese revolves around me in my daily life now. I live in a city where there are many Chinese people, especially international students. So whenever I'm at university there are always Chinese people in my group project. I’m glad I can speak to them in Chinese a little bit. At work there's lots of Chinese customers, too. All this regular interaction with Chinese gives me lots of motivation to learn.
Daily habits: my Chinese learning routine
Step 1: Glossika
I started learning Chinese with just Glossika. I didn't even know how to say hello at that point. It was a total-beginner level. I already knew about Glossika because I had used it for French, but never really utilized it. So, I thought, I’ll just try to learn Chinese this way. It was easy and I could just do it every day. I didn’t really practice writing or reading back then, and never touched a textbook. My main focus was just to start speaking the language.
After I started using Glossika, I felt like I was picking up a little bit more each day. So, for example, I was watching the Bruce Lee show, and I'd find myself picking up a few more words each episode. And a few months down the road I was getting really good: I did a tone test and I got it all correct.
Step 2: Shadowing practice
I also learned how to do the right tones on YouTube via what’s called shadowing practice. I imitated Youtube videos a lot to get better at pronunciation. I just imitate a whole video that I enjoy watching and then I can have a conversation about plants, for example, or something like that. I also do the shadowing practice using a spaced repetition method, I imitate the same video every day over a week.
Step 3: Formal language course
I also started a university course in Chinese a few months after beginning Glossika. I was in the beginner group but my teacher thought I should be put higher because he was impressed with my tones. I did the course for about a year… but I felt like I didn’t learn anything from my class during the whole year. The Chinese teachers won't correct your tones or accent; sometimes it felt frustrating because it seemed like they weren’t actually trying to teach us properly.
I think that a beneficial thing is that with Glossika, it's more about getting into the habit of training regularly. You can't always be motivated, and language learning takes a lot of time. However, if you're motivated enough to get yourself into the habit of doing Glossika regularly, then you don't really need that motivation. You just log in and do what the app tells you to do.
The listening mode is really easy because you can just do it while walking, or while on public transport. When I first started doing Chinese in Glossika, I would do at least an hour of listening a day. And I would listen to it when I was walking the dog, or if I was catching a tram to school. Like if I was ever outside I'd listen to it. So I think, even though the full-practice method is better, listening takes less motivation, and therefore it is better in the long term because you won't burn out so quickly and won't drop out.
How I use Chinese in daily life
So now I know a little bit of Chinese and a little bit of French, but not to a native like level. I am fluent in the way that Glossika describes it: my sentences flow, I can say a sentence in one breath. But my vocabulary is still limited. At work there's lots of stuff I know how to say because I learned the vocabulary related to the things I do. Thanks to that effort, I can really help the Chinese customers to a certain extent if it's not something too specific. But I had lots of times where a Chinese customer won't speak any English and they'll be on their phone trying to Google Translate, and I'll just come out and say hi don't worry like I can speak chinese how can I help you. When I’m actually able to help them, it’s an amazing feeling. I think it’s cool; you can kind of get this feeling that you are all right, that you can speak! It's a motivation for me to keep moving forward and to try to put myself out there more.
I guess it especially helps with speaking. Imagine you mess up a sentence in front of a customer, you'll never really forget it. My heart will still race when I'm trying to speak Chinese with natives.
Lots of Chinese I talk to say they haven’t met a laowai (foreigner) who can speak as well as me. I think tones and pronunciation aren't actually as hard as people think! It can be learnt quickly in the language learning process. In many formal Chinese classes they don't stress it's importance and allow foreigners to use bad pronunciation and tones throughout their long years of study. It's essential that these basics like the right tones are first mastered. Otherwise you will always sound like a monkey.
It’s all about enjoying the process
I think languages come easy to me in a way that I enjoy the process of learning them. People say that I’m talented but I think It's just because I've grinded and really put in the time. And I think the more languages you learn, the easier it gets. After doing French, it was easier for me to do Chinese just because I knew it could be done.
I really enjoy learning about Chinese history and philosophy. And so that's why I like classical Chinese as well. I actually want to start doing Japanese as well; I’ve already tried out Glossika’s Japanese course. I really like Japanese architecture — I’m been working on a whole essay about Japanese architects at the moment — but it's like, yeah, I’d like to go to japan as well one day!
But in terms of picking up stuff, I don’t think there's much of a difference between my brain and other people's brains. I just like acquiring knowledge and meeting people. I guess I like to learn more about people, in a way, and that motivates me to learn languages.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
