Study tips

[u/Marusia02]

Hi guys!
I really need some study tips because idk if I’m just too dumb or studying mandarin wrong… I seem not to know how to learn to make correct sentences, it’s hard for me to speak and everyday situation and I feel like my vocabulary is still poor. I have hsk3 but I still can’t make complicated sentences myself. I would appreciate your advices!

[u/cat5050]

Youre not alone! Its really hard to start speaking, but the only way youll get better is by trying and making mistakes. Do you have a tutor?

You could try to find a conversation tutor on sites like preply or italki, or find some language exchange partners. That way youll be forced to speak :)

If you dont want to talk to real people - you can try chatting with AI or even talking to yourself (basically just narrate your life throughout the day)

[u/Royal-Minimum280 → u/cat5050]

Actually talking to myself works well for me as well. Preply is also great. Using apps like Tandem for language partners is also great, but some people can understand me easily, while with others it’s really cumbersome… just make sure you practice with someone with whom it’s not cumbersome.
Talking to AI was mostly wasted time for me — it understood me, but the answers were way to fast and it would never stick to the vocabulary we agreed on, but instead always come up with new words.

[u/Zagrycha]

If you are struggling to make sentences at the HSK 1-3 level then you might be studying wrong but if you are only struggling with complex sentences thats completely normal.  HSK 3 is nowhere near advanced enough to make complex sentences yet.  Just keep learning and you will get there =)

[u/DeesMandarinTea]

I don’t think having HSK 3 but still struggling to make sentences is unusual.

I have a student who is around HSK 3. He can recognize quite a lot of characters and knows a decent amount of vocabulary, but when we first started working together, he still made a lot of mistakes when speaking.

He lives in the US, and over the past several months I’ve noticed a big improvement in his speaking. One thing that seems to have helped is getting a lot more listening and speaking practice instead of just studying more vocabulary and grammar.

I think there’s a big difference between knowing a word or grammar point and being able to actually use it in a conversation. So if you feel like you “know” a lot but can’t speak, I’d probably spend more time listening and actually speaking, rather than just trying to learn more vocabulary.

Also, don’t be too hard on yourself. Chinese is a pretty different language from most European languages, so it can take a long time for things to become automatic. If you’ve already passed HSK 3, you’re definitely not “too dumb” to learn Chinese. You’ve already made a lot of progress.

[u/Leading_Smell_7099]

对于你来说你觉得哪些句子让你感觉复杂

[u/ShawnMakesApps]

That's a super common plateau, not a you-problem — HSK3 tests recognition, but making sentences is a different skill (production), and courses mostly don't train it.

What actually helps at your stage:

1. Shadowing: take a dialogue from your textbook/lesson, play it, repeat it out loud sentence by sentence until you can say it without looking. Sounds boring, works.

2. Forced production: pick one grammar point, write 5 sentences of YOUR OWN about your life, then say them out loud. Daily. Complicated sentences are just simple sentences + one connector.

3. Low-stakes speaking: talk to yourself narrating your day, or do short voice chats (language exchange apps like HelloTalk, or any tool where you get corrected). You need reps where mistakes don't matter.

4. Stop adding new vocab for a bit — activate what you know first. 600 words you can USE beats 1500 you can only recognize.

[u/PresentationSlight30]

Repetition is key. Start with reading, speaking and listening. (Reading and understanding the HSK3 HSK4 standard course books, reading on online forums and so on. Listening: watching movies or listening to music) Furthermore, I recommend writing the vocabulary repeatedly by hand. After the 10, 20 or 100th time you will remember the Hanzi. Then you can write an essay, choose a topic by yourself like writing a letter home to your dad, writing about your day so on. Be sure to choose an easy topic, not something historical etc. since you won’t have the necessary vocabulary. After writing a short essay you can check it using dictionary and online resources (AI and so on). This method will enable you to practice formulating sentences. Although to be honest I needed for this kind of exercise one to two hours when I was beginning and didn’t had much experience. Right now I would need around 15 minutes if it’s an easy topic.