It is difficult to do that, but it is quite easy to predict with our students who will succeed in learning Mandarin up to fluency and who will not by just getting known to them socially. It is not those who study the hardest, but those who are willing to accept a culture as different as China’s (almost another kind of reality) as their own – for at least a certain time period.
Hard to do and not for everyone, but there is no faster and better way to learn Chinese.
That’s the psychological side. The studying side is quite straight forward: do not speak English, do not read English, do not write English. Easy for those few lucky ones who actually dont speak English (and therefore are probably not reading this blog) but much harder for everyone else. To choose the difficult road whenever presented with the choice. It takes a lot of willpower. The only real way around this is by simply placing yourself into an environment where nobody else speaks English. Then the studying aspect of immersion becomes very simple. If you manage to sort out the psychological part chances are you will become fluent in Mandarin quite quickly.

If you can’t immerse yourself in a Chinese culture, you really have to find another way to bring today’s Chinese culture to you (You don’t need to know all the historic stuff, just the gossip topic of the day).

I suspect reading and writing Chinese can really divert a lot of time from learning to communicate face-to-face in Chinese. So it is important to stick with the spoken conversational language. Becoming a bookworm won’t cut it.

I mentioned translating western movie titles as an interesting task with the newspaper, but it offers tons of opportunities for you to ask your Chinese friends why the difference and to laugh about the contrast… all while practising your Chinese.

In sum, the best learners of modern Chinese are talkers and listeners, not readers and writers. DON’T be shy, use what you have.

I’ve taken about a year off from Chinese to work on French, but this makes me want to get back in the game.

A few personal comments:

1 – What beginners have learned IS of limited use, because…. what has been learned is limited.

2 – Textbook prepare you for the real world as much as cookbooks prepare you for real cooking. YOU still have to make the cookies.

I agree mostly with Adam and Benny. No app, website or teacher is going to magically make you fluent, but nobody likes that answer. Time + effort.

Incredible to think you got responses from all these folks.

Thought of a few questions I would like to ask the panel:

1) Can you hand write Chinese?
2) If yes, how did you learn?
3) If yes, please post a personal hand writing pic.

Here’s another thought…

Remember your posts and our interchange on recording ourselves… outside of a few in the list above, most I’ve never heard speak Chinese.

While text has its place and value, in the age of youtube and recording audio being as simple as a tap on our mobile device, and the fact that the article is about ‘speaking Chinese’, wouldn’t it be great and so relative if each ‘expert’ posted an audio clip of them spontaneously speaking Chinese with a native Chinese… now that would put some real proof in the pudding and demo their true 汉语水平 and 专家 status…