Planning to travel to China in 4-5 months. Assuming I have about an hour a day to practice, how would you spend that time?

Studying

Some context that might help is I've been using Hello Chinese primarily with some limited supplementation from Du Chinese (although have been busy and fallen off practice in the last couple of months). From Hello Chinese I've learned just over 400 words but of course as I haven't practice much in the last couple months I certainly have much to review.

I should also note that I'm travelling with my partner who is fluent in spoken Mandarin although not in reading so certainly I won't have too much pressure to communicate. But I do want to try my best! I won't really be able to rely on her for practice much though because we are long-distance and both have busy careers.

How would you recommend dividing my time until the trip? Although I've fallen out of practice for a few months I intend to be consistent with around an hour a day (more if I can find time) dedicated to study. I still have access to Hello Chinese and Du Chinese but I wonder if a resource to help with graded listening (open to any suggestions) would be useful.

Also if it matters the plan for the trip would probably be to travel in Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shanghai. I think my partner has a Shanghainese accent in Mandarin. So I don't think I'd get much exposure to Northern accents.

Posted Dec 29, 2025, 7:58 PM UTC

18
Loading comments…