Not being in China has made me forget a lot of my hard-earned Chinese.

I haven't been there for 3 years. So when I do have chances to speak (mainly ordering food in a restaurant) it's so depressing to get that confused look and nervous smile back in response.

So I decided to do something about it.

I created a Chinese environment even though I wasn't in China. I tried lots of things. These are the three tactics which worked best for me:

#1 Listening to Chinese podcasts

I listen to podcasts passively. A few times a week, I'll listen while I'm doing something else, like driving or washing the dishes.

My favourite is 不明白博客 with discussions on what's happening in China now.

#2 Watching comedy sketches on YouTube

This my active study. I watch one sketch of Rock and Roast (脱口秀) once a week. I learn the vocab and repeat until I understand everything.

Favourites are: Li Xueqin 李雪琴, Zhou Qimo 周奇墨, and Yang Li 杨笠.

#3 Speaking Chinese on WeChat

I force myself to message someone I know in Chinese and start a conversation daily. I listen back to myself, which is painful but a great way to self-correct.

With passive and active learning, and daily practice and self-correcting, my Chinese definitely feels like it's got better. Or, at least stopped getting worse!