You listen to us speak Mandarin.Now try speaking it yourself.
Tom and Ula have spent years having messy, funny, real Mandarin and English conversations. The podcast helps you hear how the language actually sounds. A lesson lets you join the conversation.
No payment details. No commitment. Just a real conversation with a Taiwanese teacher.
If this sounds familiar...
You understand more than you can say.
You know the word when someone else says it. Then your brain deletes it when it is your turn.
Textbook Mandarin is not the problem.
You need more time reacting to real people, at real speed, without knowing exactly what comes next.
You do not need to feel ready first.
A good teacher gives you enough room to try, get it wrong, fix it, and try again.
The bit after listening
Turn passive Mandarin into something you can actually use.
Hear it
Use the podcast for natural rhythm, vocabulary, reactions and the kind of Mandarin people actually say.
Use it
Bring a phrase, topic or question from an episode into a one-to-one lesson and use it in conversation.
Make it yours
Your teacher helps you reshape it around your life so it stops being something you recognise and becomes something you can say.
From the podcast
Latest conversations turned into something useful.
Episode 478
Do You Need to Understand Mandarin Grammar Before Speaking?
Knowing a Mandarin grammar rule and using it in conversation are different things. Here’s how to give grammar a useful place in your learning while making room to actually speak.
Read & listen
Episode 479
How to Talk About Your Holiday in Mandarin
You don’t need a huge vocabulary to tell a good holiday story in Mandarin. Start with where you went, what happened and how you felt, then let the conversation grow.
Read & listen
Episode 480
The Mandarin You Actually Need: Stop Learning Words You’ll Never Use
Mandarin learners often collect vocabulary they can recognise but would never actually say. Here’s how to build a more useful vocabulary around the conversations you genuinely want to have.
Read & listenListening is good. Speaking changes things.
Pick a time, meet one of our Taiwanese teachers, and spend 30 minutes finding out what your Mandarin feels like in a real conversation.
Choose a free lesson time