improving Chinese conversational skills?

[fervent CBC]

Hey guys, this is my first post! I am a Chinese born in Canada, and my Chinese is pretty proficient (speak with some 北京口音）Whenever I go back to Beijing, I notice that my conversational and social skills in Chinese are really nowhere close to those skills of my English, which is really troubling since a) I want to be proficient Socially in Chinese b) I have a hard time communicating with confidence. So I was just wondering whether you guys have any way for me to improve my social proficiency in Chinese - I've tried to improve it by watching shows and movies like 爱情公寓， etc. Thanks!

[Nathan Mao]

Passive practice (watching tv shows) is of limited utility for improving active skills.

You have to find ways to incorporate active skills practice into your effort.

One way might be to find a dialogue-heavy book and read it out loud.

Another way would be to think of what you want to say, translate it into Chinese, write it, and then check it with someone living in Beijing or someone in the US raised to adulthood in Beijing via Skype or something.

Of course, the BEST way to improve speaking and social proficiency is to just do it. Dive right in. You sound like you have the ability to get your point across, so there aren't many actual obstacles to social proficiency, just verbal friction slowing you down.

The more you do it,the smoother you will get.

You just have to accept that you have to make mistakes to improve.

Also, you have to keep your Editor Ear on every time you talk. Listen to yourself speak, then compare it to the native speaker's response. What is different? Tones not quite right? Different word choice? Fluidity?

Every speaking opportunity should be seen as an opportunity to model someone with native skills. Remember a few phrases they chose, and repeat it to yourself several times after the conversation ends.

Repetition is always the key. A amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they can't get it wrong...

[mouse]

 

Repetition is always the key. Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they can't get it wrong...

 

I like this. To paraphrase Mark E Smith, it's all about the three R's: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition.

[samorsang]

Hiya,

 

It does not really sound to me as if your barriers are of a linguistic nature. I assume the main problem is that you cannot switch easily from a western mindset (Canada) to an east Asian mindset, if at all. When you are having conversations with local Chinese people all the information you receive or submit will be filtered by your social background, i.e. CBC. You probably already know that a western and a Chinese mind are completely different, if I say 我喜欢你 in Chinese it sounds like I want to get married whereas in the US it is just a casual phrase.

 

The only solution I see is to live in China for prolonged periods of time and surround yourself with real Chinese people (as opposed to the expat crowd). You can find some interesting articles on the whole cultural gap here. Depending on what your career plans are this could actually be a smart move as there are few people today who both understand the western and eastern mindset.

 

Good luck

 

Sam

 

 

[SerikaChinese]

I think the others are spot on. The best and the simplest way to get better at speaking is to speak.

 

Said another way, sentence production is the act of actively applying your latent Chinese, which given you are abroad, hasn't had too much opportunity to be taken out to the sun.

 

Listening is also an act of exposure, but a very passive one with gradual results over time. So if you want to get better quickly, speak more Chinese with other CBCs.