This Mandarin Monday, instead of giving you a list of vocabulary to work on, we’re giving you some tips on learning the language from 15-year-old student correspondent Fiona McFarland, who speaks five languages.

I have lived in China since age two and went to a Chinese school from kindergarten to grade 8. I learned English at home through talking with my family and reading books until grade 6 when I began taking English courses online. In grade 6 I also started learning French through Duolingo and then in grade 7, I began taking online French courses. At the same time in grade 7, I started learning Russian by chatting with Russian friends. Since I progressed rapidly I soon began to learn reading, writing, and grammar as well. In grade 8 I picked up Spanish on Duolingo as a hobby. I supplemented this with listening-based SpanishPod101 and attending a weekly online Spanish Club as well as watching movies, listening to music, labeling objects, and other activities associated with my other languages, I am now fluent in English and Chinese, am fast approaching fluency in French and soon after Russian, and can have basic conversations in Spanish. Here are my tips for learning a language, any language:

Change your cellphone’s language to whatever you are learning.

This exposes you to a lot of vocabulary, such as “phone,” “calendar,” “push the button,” “talk with your friends,” etc. as shown to the right since it also changes every app to that language. You can do this with any device, just be careful: make sure you can change the language back to your native tongue so that when an important message comes up you do not make a mistake. Also, when you try to translate something in WeChat, it will automatically translate to the language set on your phone.

Write a journal/diary.

Don’t worry about your grammar, just write whatever comes to your head. If you think you do not know enough words, look them up in a dictionary or just supplement English words wherever needed. Make sure to write the date how people would in that language since each country writes the date differently.

Tape the names of objects all over the house.

For instance, on a mirror put the word “mirror;” beside your toothbrush put “toothbrush;” beside the kitchen door put “kitchen,” etc. Just remember that tape gets sticky and if you leave a note on something for a long time it does not come off easily.

Play games.

If possible, play board or card games with someone else who speaks the language. Some games work via facetime and others, such as Minecraft or Words With Friends, are specifically made for online and come in all different languages. However, if you would rather play face-to-face games but have no one else to play with, games like UNO, Carcassonne, Pandemic, and most cooperative games use lots of important vocabulary and work well when alone. Just chatter to yourself and pretend to be all the players.

Talk talk talk.

Similar to 4, ideally you can talk with someone else, no matter how bad you think your grammar or pronunciation is. Even voice messaging with someone once in a while can help a lot! However, if this is not an option, have conversations with yourself. This will probably feel embarrassing to most people, but there are things you can do to help that. I sometimes chatter to myself with earbuds on or my hood up so that I can just pretend I am talking to someone on the phone.

Watch movies.

With or without subtitles, you are bound to learn some new words while enjoying yourself. If you really want to learn a lot of vocab, make flashcards of any words essential to the story that you did not know. E.g. for Cinderella you could write “glass slippers,” “mice,” “carriage,” etc.

Listen to music.

There are all sorts of music out there in many different languages. I personally enjoy Disney and Hillsong music since I already know the lyrics in English, the songs are clean, and they have been translated into many languages.

Read.

Books, cereal boxes, restaurant menus, anything works! For books, choose ones that interest you and that you would enjoy reading, since that way you are more likely to read it all the way through. Of course, depending on your language level and where you live this may or may not work for you.

Cook or bake.

Find recipes in the language you are learning. If you are an avid baker, copy down your favorites and create a recipe box with multilingual recipes. This is a great way to practice numbers, ingredients, and directions as well as try new cuisine.

Practice any way you can!

Websites and apps like Duolingo, Babbel, or LanguagePod101 can teach you a lot. Making flashcards of words you learn also reinforces your vocabulary learning. If you wish to communicate with native speakers there are penpal websites such as studentsoftheworld. Honestly, the possibilities are endless! Whatever you chose to do though, practice your language every single day, even if it is only for 5 minutes. To make your learning fun, vary it up. For instance, you could watch a movie one day, bake something the next, and then practice on Duolingo the day after. The most important thing, though, is to just do what you enjoy while learning a language!

KEEP READING: A Giraffe Among Horses: Growing up as a (Tall) Foreigner in a Chinese School

Images: Fiona McFarland

When I first attended Chinese kindergarten, I knew I was different because I only went to school for a few classes a day and then went home and played. Since I was only four or five years old, my brain soaked up everything it heard, and learning the language was not a problem. I knew I was Canadian and that everyone else was Chinese, but at that time nationalities and skin color made no sense to me. I had pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes whereas all my other classmates had tan-colored skin, black hair, and brown eyes, but that was not what made me different, I thought. What made me different was that I went to school part-time and was a head taller than everyone else.

As I grew older and continued on in the Chinese school system, I began to notice that people looked at me differently. Parents who had never seen me before would stop and stare, and some teachers would give me special privileges. However, by grade two or three, most people were used to seeing me. I had my friends, and all 50 of my classmates 同学 (tóngxué) thought of me as just another student. I loved my amazing teacher 老师 (lǎoshī), and although I did not realize it, it was because of her that I was able to last until grade three in a bustling public school.

Later in grade four my family and I moved. I then went to a private Chinese school with only a dozen classmates. The first day I walked in I felt very self-conscious. My height did not help. As I sat waiting for the other students to file into the room, two boys ventured up to get to know the tall foreign girl. One of them asked in halting English “Do you…speak Chinese?” Expecting this, I grinned and replied in flawless Mandarin, “Yes, I speak Chinese.” Surveying me, one joked to the other “Her English is better than mine!” His friend retorted “Heck, her Chinese is better than yours!” Laughing, I knew that this school would be ok and that I would be accepted.

Throughout that first day of 4th grade, others came up and got to know me in their own way too. One boy sauntered up to me and said with an all-too-innocent smile “You seem pretty good at reading Chinese, can you read this aloud to me?” He showed me a slip of paper that said 我是二百五 wǒ shì èrbǎiwǔ (I am 250). Knowing that the number 250 in Chinese meant stupid, I just smirked and replied, “I could, but why don’t you?” My classmates were goofballs and really fun to be around. Over the course of the next few months, I made friends who saw me as 楠楠 (nannan) my Chinese name, their smart and funny classmate, not just as the tall foreign girl.

In general, I liked my teachers as well. I only went half-day and did next to no Chinese school homework, so many of them thought I was sure to fail exams, but I usually passed in my Chinese literature 语文 (yǔwén) classes, and much to many teachers’ surprise, I competed for top marks in the class in math 数学 (shùxué) a few years in a row. Sadly, my grade 7 math teacher 数学老师 (shùxué lǎoshī) was not as good. When she saw me, she thought that I could not speak Mandarin. Then when she realized that I actually could, she still thought that I probably was no good in math so she asked me only the simplest questions. It was embarrassing to be treated like a 1st grader in a 7th-grade class. Later, once she discovered that I was actually quite good, she then compared my fellow classmates to me in terms of grades. If others scored poorly on exams, she would sometimes say to them “Even the foreign kid did better than you!” I always felt so bad, and it definitely did not help people like me.

It was not just that teacher, though, that made grades seven and eight tough. Chinese middle school is very hard with tons of pressure coming from teachers and parents alike for students to succeed. With my classmates studying from 7am to 9 or 10pm every single day and still not finishing all their homework, everyone was tired, stressed, and grouchy a lot of the time, especially the teachers. At that time I also struggled because part-time Chinese just was not enough in order for me to keep up. My parents decided to switch me to English school for 9th grade.

I will always treasure my memories and the valuable knowledge I learned from kindergarten to grade 8 in Chinese school. Not only am I fluent in reading, writing, and speaking, I also have a firm base of Chinese history and cultural knowledge. Chinese middle school was tough, but despite that, I am grateful for the strong and important friendships that I developed during those two years. Along with my teachers and classmates, I realized that being different is not bad and that it is ok to stand out. My classmates accepted me as I was, and I will always be grateful for the impact it had on my life.

KEEP READING: Is There Ever a Good Time to Move Schools?: Beijing Educators Weigh In

Images: Pexels, Fiona McFarland