Motivation is key to becoming a great Chinese speaker, but you know what else is important? Confidence! You need to feel confident enough to dare talk to someone in Chinese and practice. It can be scary, at first, to talk Chinese in front of strangers, you may be afraid of being mocked or observed. But if you don’t try, you’ll never reach your goal. Don’t let shyness rule your fluency!
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This article is part of the Learning Chinese Motivation Playbook
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I can’t give you a tip to build confidence that will work like magic in a minute. There’s no such thing. But I can show you the path to successfully overcome shyness and grow confident.
Get A Vaccine!
For some diseases, you can get a vaccine. What happens when you do? When you get a vaccine, small particles of the disease are injected into your body to make you used to the disease. Little by little, your body grows accustomed to it and learns to fight it. That way you’ll never suffer badly from this disease. Take the same approach with shyness. Identify your problem and face it: you want to familiarize yourself with it so you can better overcome it. Say, you don’t dare speak Chinese because you’re afraid of being mocked. There, it’s said. Once you’ve faced the cause for your shyness, you can deal with it.
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Try
To get rid of too much shyness, the best cure is to leave your comfort zone, little by little. Take small steps, so you’re confident enough to reach them. Just add a pinch of danger, of unfamiliar to each step. The goal is to get out your comfort zone, little by little. Seize every opportunity you get to try to speak Chinese.
Try just a little 你好 to the Chinese you meet. If you don’t try, you’ll never improve. Next time you could try 你好吗？Do it, step by step. It feels good.
Remember that “Improve your skills on your own” advice? Well, it has the same aim. You need to improve your speaking skills. You have a secret tool to train and practice: Ninchanese’s speaking stages. Whenever you’re about to meet Chinese speakers, practice first on Ninchanese and then use that to try to present yourself in Chinese. Or try to ask something in Mandarin you learned on Ninchanese. Get my point?
Your Mission to Be More Confident in Chinese
Get out of your comfort zone and dare to speak even if it’s 1 or 2 words in Chinese! Try to find solutions to say goodbye to shyness. Take small steps.
- Head to a Chinese shop in your town and dare to say 你好 to the sellers. Don’t be afraid, little dragon, you would love to hear a few words in your mother tongue too if you were them.
- Say 你好 and next time you’ll try to say 谢谢 xièxiè (thank you) and 再见 zàijiàn (goodbye). Great, you’ve started your journey to be confident enough to say full sentences.
The Nincha Team
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