on the 8th of August, AOE conducted a livestream session with the topic "how to improve your Chinese skills?"

In this session, we talked about the four advices about learning Chinese effectively.

Chinese is an important language to learn. It is used widely by 1.5 billion people on this planet. The language is properly structured and requires systematically learning. Yet, many of us do not know how to learn this language properly. Today, I will offer some concrete advice on how to improve your Chinese skills.

Advice one: Set up your goals and keep your motivations.
Your goals should be set in accordance with your level and they need to be realistic.
Evaluate your learning results once in a while to determine whether your goals are reached
Once you reach your goals, new goals shall be set.
It takes some real efforts to reach your goals, and you should constantly track your progress.
There is a motivation for doing everything, and this also applies to Chinese learning.
Constantly remind yourself of your ambition so that you can keep making progress.
Give yourself praises when you see progress being made on your Chinese learning.

Advice Two: Take an HSK course and buy some HSK books
HSK courses are properly structured and will teach you everything from the basic intonations, pinyin, and radicals all the way up to complicated passages and conversations.
HSK courses will tell you where to start, and what needs to be included at each stage of learning.
Homework assignments are designed to solidify your learning results, and increase your understanding of Chinese language and identify your areas of weaknesses.
Online interactions with your instructors can be not only fun, but also conducive to your language learning.
HSK courses are designed specifically to help foreigners learn Chinese

Advice Three: Use Chinese in your daily life
Using Chinese in your daily life will help you to use the knowledge acquired in your HSK course.
Beginners can consider listening to lullabies, and more advanced students may listen to Chinese songs, or watch Chinese videos on social media channel.
Chinese TV series or movies not only help you with the language, but also give you knowledge of Chinese culture and society.
Do everything in Chinese: write fitness journals, write blogs in Chinese, shoot videos in Chinese, think in Chinese, or switch your phone to Chinese settings

Advice Four: Find a language partner
A language partner will be a good way to help you use your Chinese language
Communicate frequently with your partner on social media and chatting apps such as WeChat
Meet your language partner in person if possible. Try to communicate with him/her and do all the activities together in Chinese.
You can also make phone calls with your partner.
Ask your language partner to take you to exclusively Chinese environment and help you with your daily tasks, such as ordering food at a restaurant, getting physical health checks at hospitals.