In episode three of The Learner Journals, Tom speaks with Jemima, a British Mandarin learner, historian, PhD researcher and future Dr. History, about how a Taiwanese Netflix drama unexpectedly started her Mandarin journey.

Jemima began learning Mandarin during lockdown after watching the Taiwanese drama Bromance and falling in love with the sound of the language. Since then, Mandarin has become part of her daily life through classes, graded readers, Taiwanese music, language exchange apps, Mandarin dramas, self-study, and the Mandarin Monkey community.

This episode covers reading as a learning method, why graded readers can be so useful, how routines help language learning stick, the value of Chinesey for characters, why beginners should not skip pinyin and tones, and how using Chinglish can remove the fear of speaking.

A useful listen for Mandarin learners, Taiwanese Mandarin fans, self-study learners, introverted language learners, and anyone who has ever watched one drama on Netflix and accidentally changed the entire direction of their life. As one does.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of The Learner Journals, Tom speaks with Ashley, a Mandarin learner from California, about why she started learning Mandarin and how her approach has changed over time.

Ashley began learning Mandarin in 2015 before visiting her husband’s family in Taiwan. What started as a way to communicate with relatives grew into a long-term language-learning journey built around daily practice, real conversations, online classes, community hangouts, flashcards, self-talk, and making a lot of mistakes along the way.

This episode covers the reality of learning Mandarin as an adult, why confidence matters, how speaking to yourself can actually help, the problem with chasing “fluency”, why tones matter early on, and how joining a learning community helped Ashley push through the intermediate plateau.

A useful listen for Mandarin learners, language learners, self-study learners, and anyone who has ever frozen in a shop despite absolutely promising themselves they were going to speak the language this time.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.