This student, honestly, wasn’t good at “speaking” Chinese at the beginning.
He could read a bit. He could barely write. But the moment he opened his mouth –
his tones went everywhere, his zh/ch/sh and z/c/s mixed together, and he knew people struggled to understand him.
His school teacher said: “Just practice more.”
But he didn’t know how to practice.
Then he made a decision: one session every week, without exception.
One year later, he scored a 7 in IBDP Chinese.
Here are the core difficulties he faced, and how his tutor worked through them with him, week by week.
Difficulty 1: Pronunciation and tones – the moment he spoke, it “didn’t sound like Chinese”
In his first lesson, he tried to say “我想问你” –
his tutor heard “我想玩你”.
This isn’t a joke. It actually happened.
What they did each week:
- First lesson: tone diagnosis – read a list of words, his tutor mapped his tone contour
- Weekly practice with minimal pairs (妈/麻/马/骂, 汤/糖, 买/卖)
- One recorded speaking practice every week – played back so he could hear himself. The first time he listened, he said: “So this is what I sound like to native speakers.”
- His tutor taught him to use hand gestures for tones – level, rising, falling-rising, falling
- Each week, focused on only 1-2 difficult sounds (e.g. zh/ch/sh vs z/c/s) – no more than that
The result:
Three months later, his tones were much more stable. He said: “I used to feel like I was ‘reciting’ Chinese. Now I feel like I’m actually ‘speaking’ it.”
Difficulty 2: Picture description – not stuck anymore, but very “dry”
His IO problem wasn’t “can’t speak enough”.
After a few weeks, he went from 45 seconds to 3 minutes.
But his content was:
- “There’s a person on the left. A tree on the right. They are eating. I also like eating. Um… that’s it.”
- Dry. Repetitive. No layers.
What they did each week:
Learned a four-layer structure for picture description:
- Objective description (people, objects, position, colours)
- Action / situation inference (what are they doing? what occasion is this?)
- Personal connection (this reminds me of… when I was little…)
- Cultural comparison (in my country / culture, a similar situation is…)
- One IB theme per week, prepared 10 keywords – required to use at least 5 in the IO
- After each mock IO, picked only the “driest” section and re-did just that part – not the whole thing
The result:
- His IO went from “describing a picture” to “telling a layered story.”
- On exam day, he said: “When I got to layer four, I saw the examiner nod.”
Difficulty 3: HL extra literary works – didn’t know what to read or how it would be tested
He was an HL student, so he had to read two literary works.
His exact words: “I can barely read Chinese news. And you want me to read a novel?”
What they did each week:
- His tutor helped him choose the books first – no long novels. Short story collections and essay collections (5-10 pages per piece – low pressure)
- Read one piece per week (not one book). Read one section together in class – tutor explained sentence by sentence
No need to write literary analysis. Just answer:
What is this story about? (one sentence)
Who is the main character? What happened to them?
Is there one sentence you found interesting?
Each week, collected 3-5 sentences or examples from the reading – saved in a document
The result:
- He finished both books without breaking down.
- On exam day, when related questions appeared, he had something to write.
- He said: “Turns out, reading a Chinese book doesn’t mean finishing 100 pages in one go.”
Difficulty 4: Exam anxiety – “I don’t think I’ll do well”
This was his most real difficulty – and the one people overlook the most.
Before every mock exam, he got anxious:
- “What if I can’t understand the listening?”
- “What if I freeze in the IO?”
What they did each week:
- Same day, same time every week – built a rhythm
- First 5 minutes of each session: “What’s one thing from this week that made you feel like you improved?” (not “what are you still bad at?”)
- After each weekly mock exam, not just correcting mistakes – also writing down “three things I did right this week”
- His tutor told him: “You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be a little better than last week.”
The result:
His anxiety didn’t disappear completely – but he said: “I knew I was improving every week. So on exam day, I just treated it like another weekly practice.”
Learning the All Round Way
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