Stuck (between HSK 5 and 6, speaking) how to get motivated again outside China?

[Maqiulin]

Hello , 

 

Your help or insight would be much appreciated. From 2008-2011 I lived in China and studied Chinese for 3 years (at uni). When I came back  to Europe I was pretty fluent. I tried to keep up and passed HSK 5 a few times, but noticed my speaking got worse over time. In the mean time I had a baby and my life changed, but still tried to keep up. Then I had a wake-up call, I got breast-cancer (now a "survivor") and decided to do what I love most: get a master degree(partime) in Chinese Studies and during chemo I started my first courses. I made a lot of progress but recently failed the HSK 6 and also my second semester (last) Chinese course, both short 1 point only. I also noticed that my speaking did not get better. Reading, writing, hearing improved, but speaking is behind. Now I am a bit stuck, demotivated and do not know what to do. I like I-talki, but there are so many hours you can have classes, I have Chinese friends, but they speak English or are learning another language themselves.I'm not disciplined enough for memrise and skritter, somehow that does not work for me. I like watching Chinese historical costume drama's, but I need something more structured maybe. I took all the possible classes at the local Chinese School and there is no Confucius Institute near.

 

Any ideas? Your help is much appreciated!  recently

 

[陳德聰]

1) Talk to yourself.

2) Shadow content you like.

3) Chorus with speakers you like to imitate.

You say you're not disciplined enough, but there is no way to improve your speaking that doesn't involve speaking.

Alternatively you could hire a tutor to meet regularly and work on your conversational skills.

[LinZhenPu]

Try HelloTalk, it's a smartphone/tablet app messaging platform for finding language exchange partners for free. You should be able to get lots of speaking practice without paying a cent since native English speakers are in demand and native Chinese speakers are high in supply.