Shadowing Practice: Introduction to Chinese (New Course!) - For Complete Beginners - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Welcome to Introduction to Chinese.
2
This is a short and easy course designed for absolute beginners who have no background whatsoever in the Chinese language, and it will take less than 15 hours to complete.
3
Here's a quick introduction to the course.
4
In order to understand the design of this course, let's first talk about how Chinese proficiency is measured.
5
Chinese language proficiency is assessed through a series of tests called the HSK.
6
As you see on the x-axis of this chart, the test ranges from HSK1 to HSK79 with progressing difficulty.
7
Based on some estimates, HSK1 takes about only 100 hours to achieve, whereas HSK79 can take over 3,000 hours.
8
At Chinese Zero to Hero, we have designed separate video courses for each level, starting from HSK1 all the way to HSK79, consisting of thousands of videos.
9
Among these courses, the HSK1 course is the easiest and is also designed with absolute beginners in mind.
10
However, some find that even this course is a bit too challenging since you have to learn not only words and grammar, but also tones and characters all at the same time.
11
So learners can quickly get inundated and tend to just give up halfway.
12
Compared to HSK-1, this introduction to Chinese course is even easier, even shorter, and demands a lot less on you.
13
To compare, the HSK-1 course takes about 100 hours to complete, but this course, this Introduction to Chinese course,
14
takes only less than 15 hours to complete.
15
And this course focuses only on the spoken language, so you will have a much easier transition to the more challenging HSK-1 course.
16
Another unique feature of this course is that we will be showing dialogues from a popular TV series called Go Ahead.
17
Now, why are we using a drama?
18
There are two reasons.
19
Number one, it will ensure that our language is authentic.
20
This is a modern day drama and the language spoken is modern standard Mandarin.
21
By directly using lines from the dialogue, we make sure that you're learning authentic language and not some dialogues artificially constructed by some teacher.
22
To that end, we have computationally analyzed the language of this drama and selected the most frequently uttered expressions.
23
We have prioritized teaching these expressions in this course.
24
And the second reason is that we hope that by integrating this drama into the course, it will make it more enjoyable and perhaps it will pique your interest
25
so that you can watch more Chinese dramas in the future
26
and you'll be able to improve your Chinese even more in the process.
27
The course consists of 12 lessons
28
and each lesson will go over three very short authentic dialogues
29
and each lesson will introduce on average just eight words or phrases and two structures.
30
So there won't be a lot to memorize for each lesson.
31
A detailed breakdown of each lesson can be found in a table shown on the home page of this course.
32
You'll learn basic functions such as greetings, self-introductions, saying goodbye, saying thank you,
33
saying sorry, basic expressions of persuasion and dissuasion, that is asking people to do things or not do things, basic expressions of wish and others.
34
We'll also go over some basic pronunciation tips such as hard vowels and consonants, colloquial pronunciations.
35
We'll also mention tones and some tone change rules, but these tones are not required.
36
They won't be quizzed or tested in this course.
37
They're just there for your information, okay?
38
Again, there are 12 lessons in this course.
39
At the end of lesson nine, you will complete an assignment.
40
Details about the assignment will be given when you get there.
41
You'll be given a grading rubric so you can grade your own work.
42
At the end of every lesson, you'll be asked to complete a short quiz that are no more than 10 multiple choice questions long.
43
The assignments and quizzes are formative assessments so that you can see that if you're on track.
44
Beside these quizzes, there are two exams.
45
At the end of the sixth lesson, you'll complete a 20-question midterm exam.
46
And after the last lesson, you'll complete a final exam, which will actually include some questions from the official HSK-1 exam
47
and will give you an extra challenge at the end of the course.
48
The exams serve as a summative assessment
49
that will both evaluate your progress as a student as well as assess the quality and effectiveness of our instruction.
50
The quizzes and exams are completed online so you can get a score right away after you complete them.
51
And a word on the limitations of this course.
52
The course is input focused, that is we put the focus on understanding and not on producing.
53
You'll only be asked to listen and sometimes maybe read a little pinyin, but you won't be asked to speak or write.
54
One of the things that makes Chinese learning super hard is the character-based writing system.
55
For the purpose of this course, you're not required to learn Chinese characters.
56
Everything is presented phonetically using a system called pinyin.
57
This drastically reduces the complexity and learning time.
58
And Chinese is a tonal language, which means that each syllable will have one of five possible tones.
59
This makes learning Chinese pronunciation a challenge.
60
For the purpose of this course, you're not expected to learn the tones.
61
Although tone marks are shown throughout the course on all the text, but you're not required to tell apart.
62
And in order to keep the course easy, the following are not found in the course.
63
For example, we're not teaching what, who, when, where, how questions.
64
We're not teaching expressions of time with exceptions of words like today or tonight, et cetera.
65
We're not teaching calendar dates and numerals and money are not covered with exception for probably common numbers like one, okay?
66
These will be covered systematically in the HSK1 course as you progress to that level.
67
If you're watching this on the online platform such as YouTube, you can just keep watching the videos in this playlist the link to the playlist is in the description below
68
if you enroll in this course on our website however you
69
can take advantage of all the quizzes exams downloadable learning materials
70
pdfs inside the course the website also has a progress tracker
71
so you can better monitor your learning enrolling in the course is completely free okay
72
so i encourage you to click on the enrollment link in the description sign up for the course
73
and take advantage of all the bonus perks.
74
And this way we'll have your email addresses so
75
that we can reach you in case YouTube's AI moderation decides
76
to just randomly shut us down like they did to many different channels.
77
Great, so that was a quick introduction to this course.
78
If you decide this course is for you, then come on board.
79
But wait, before you start lesson one, make sure you first watch the first episode of the drama series Go Ahead.
80
The first episode is about 45 minutes long.
81
We ask you to watch one episode of the drama before each of the lessons, so you get to watch 12 episodes by the end of the course.
82
By watching the series as you study these lessons, it will give you more context for the dialogues we're going to discuss.
83
It's also good listening practice, right?
84
So I'll attach a link to the drama in the description of this video.
85
And after you've done watching the first drama episode, please proceed to lesson one and we'll learn how to say hello in Chinese, okay?
86
So I'll see you there.
87
Bye.
📺 Same Channel
✨ Recommend Video
B2258 sentences
How to learn Mandarin Chinese from 0-fluency ? (Resources, Methods and Study Plans)
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B11
423 sentences
🎬 Learn English Through a Simple Story! | Introducing Yourself in English
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B11
192 sentences
Speak English Confidently in 30 Days | Daily 10 Minute English Routine | Jack Ma Motivation
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
A21
71 sentences
Billy Go’s Beginner Korean Course | #1: Course Introduction
TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B12
109 sentences
BBC Learning English 6 Minute English '14 – Learn a thousand foreign words
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
![[HSK6] TẠI SAO BẠN SỢ BẮT ĐẦU|CHINESE PODCAST 97|HSKK 高级](https://img.youtube.com/vi/30bWONNXXqo/mqdefault.jpg)
B21
189 sentences
[HSK6] TẠI SAO BẠN SỢ BẮT ĐẦU|CHINESE PODCAST 97|HSKK 高级
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B14
273 sentences
CHINA is NOT what we expected - FIRST 24 HOURS in Beijing 🇨🇳
Travel EnglishTeensDaily Conversation
B128 sentences
20260630 TUTOR A EN 9x16 FX CUSTOMS free ZT YOUNGNV L2 RS P1X1R1C1 YQ XT XT
TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B14
150 sentences
HSK 1-2｜用中文介绍自己！Self-introduction in Chinese for Beginners
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B11
58 sentences
How to Learn Any Language in 6 Months: My 4-Step Polyglot Formula
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B11
27 sentences
00. Welcome Guide - Effortless Real English
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B2233 sentences
24 Questions, No Script ｜Real Chinese Conversation ｜ Comprehensible Input (HSK3-4, subs) #chinese
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 87 sentences and 1275 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:33. The speaker talks at a natural 169 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- lesson /ˈlɛs.ən/ (noun) — A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
- tone /ˈtəʊn/ (noun) — A specific pitch.
- quiz /kwɪz/ (noun) — A competition in the answering of questions.
- dialogue /ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/ (noun) — A conversation or other form of discourse between two or more individuals.
- exam /ɪɡˈzæm/ (verb) — Shortened form of examine
- examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The act of examining.
- assignment /əˈsaɪn.mənt/ (noun) — The act of assigning; the allocation of a job or a set of tasks.
- authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/ (adjective) — Of the same origin as claimed; genuine.
- pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
- assessment /əˈsɛsmənt/ (noun) — The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed.
- compare /kəmˈpɛɚ/ (verb) — To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
- exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/ (noun) — The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule.
- assess /əˈsɛs/ (verb) — To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate; to estimate.
- consist /kənˈsɪst/ (noun) — A lineup or sequence of railroad carriages or cars, with or without a locomotive, that form a unit.
- playlist /ˈpleɪˌlɪst/ (noun) — A list of recorded songs scheduled to be played on a radio station.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- go ahead /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ (verb) — To proceed with; to begin.
- go over (verb) — To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
- come on /ˌkʌm ˈɒn/ — Come along with me; join me in going.
- give up (verb) — To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
- take over (verb) — To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- tell apart (verb) — To perceive things as different, or to perceive their difference itself; to differentiate, distinguish, discriminate.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as you'll, you're, we'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, sixth /sɪksθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, effectiveness /ɪˈfɛk.tɪv.nɪs/, complexity /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lesson, tone, quiz.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is measured · is assessed · is also designed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have designed · have prioritized · you've done |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | exam, which will · language, which means |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the easiest · the most frequently |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.