Advanced

Situation: You can understand non-specialised content produced by native speakers for native speakers, although you might struggle with it. You can also communicate almost anything you’d like in Chinese, albeit sometimes not correctly. This means that my advanced level is roughly equal to CEFR B2 and above.

Goal: Approaching a native level, meaning both deeper and broader understanding of language and culture. Increasing correctness of language production and delving deeper into specialist areas of interest.

Here are some questions relevant for advanced learners:

• If communication is no longer a problem, how do I move on?
• How do I make my level approach that of native speakers?
• How do I improve my language correctness and level?

Reaching the advanced level, keeping on improving is both easy and hard, depending on how you regard it. It’s easy because it’s very easy to find suitable reading and listening material, which means that the days of boring textbooks are gone. You can find whatever you like in your native language and start exploring that in Chinese or find entirely new areas of interest.

On the other hand, learning Chinese at the advanced level is also incredibly hard, because the more advanced we get, the less we feel that we improve for every hour we invest into learning Chinese. Perfecting pronunciation is very hard indeed and avoiding fossilisation requires a vigilant mind and active work. It’s easy to relax too much and stagnate, which means that you will only enhance what you already know rather than learning more. I suggest that you check out the pages about listening, speaking, reading and writing if you know in which area you want to develop, but checking the following articles is also possible (scroll down to see all of them in a text-only list):

All articles
The importance of knowing many words
Mental models and making mistakes
The art of being corrected
The virtues of language exchanges
Spaced repetition software and why you should use it
Learning Chinese words really fast
Listening ability, a matter of practice?
Using search engines to study Chinese
Diversified learning is smart learning
Goals and motivation, part 1 – Introduction
Goals and motivation, part 2 – Long-term goals
Goals and motivation, part 3 – Short-term goals
Goals and motivation, part 4 – Micro goals
You won’t learn Chinese simply by living abroad
Spaced repetition isn’t rote learning
Review: Chinese Synonyms Usage Dictionary
Make sure listening isn’t a practical problem
Escaping the convenience trap
Memorising dictionaries to boost reading ability
Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time
Dealing with tricky vocabulary: Killing leeches
Listening to the listener
Vocabulary in your pocket
Memory aids and mnemonics to enhance learning
Four different kinds of mistakes: Problem analysis
Growing up in Chinese
How to find more time to practise listening
Don’t be a tourist
Achieving the impossible by being inspired
Holistic language learning: Integrating knowledge
The kamikaze approach to learning Chinese
Benchmarking progress to stay motivated
Enjoying the journey while focusing on the destination
The Chinese-Chinese dictionary survival guide
Timeboxing Chinese
About opening doors and the paths beyond
Triggering quantum leaps in listening ability
Reading manga for more than just pleasure
Playing word games to practise fluency
Mapping the terra incognita of vocabulary
Reading speed: Learning how to read ten lines at a glance
Learning efficiently vs. learning quickly
Learning simplified and traditional Chinese
Advancing in spite of praise
When perfectionism becomes an obstacle to progress
Understanding regionally accented Mandarin
Use the benefits of teaching to boost your own learning
The 10,000 hour rule – Blood, sweat and tears
The importance of counting what counts
Defining Language Hacking: Lessons Learned From Hacking Chinese
Answer buttons and how to use SRS
Language question triage – General guidelines
Review: The Phonology of Standard Chinese
Don’t try to improve everything at once, limit your focus
Listening strategies: An introduction
Listening strategies: Problem analysis
Listening strategies: Background listening
Listening strategies: Passive listening
Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2: Playing computer games in Chinese
Using Lang-8 to improve your Chinese
Listening strategies: Active listening
Language is communication, not only an abstract subject to study
Listening strategies: Improving listening speed
Improving writing ability: Common problems and how to tackle them
Listening strategies: Deliberate practice and i+2
Recording yourself to improve speaking ability
Approaches to reading in Chinese
A language learner’s guide to reading comics in Chinese
31 Twitter feeds to help you learn Chinese
Listening strategies: Diversify your listening practice
Why learning Chinese through music is underrated
Study according to your current productivity level
The time barrel: Or why you have more time than you think
Extending mnemonics: Tones and pronunciation
Learning Chinese with StarCraft 2
12 songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
The importance of tones is inversely proportional to the predictability of what you say
Don’t just read about learning methods, actually try them as well
Vocalise more to learn more Chinese
Learning styles: Use with caution!
Chat your way to better Chinese
Learning Chinese in the shower with me
Is it necessary to learn to write Chinese characters by hand?
13 more songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
RTI, my favourite radio station
Have fun learning Chinese or else…
Measurable progress is a double-edged sword
Why you really should use a Chinese notebook
You can’t learn Chinese characters by rote
Chinese character challenge: Towards a more sensible way of learning to write Chinese
Remembering is a skill you can learn
Sensible character learning: Progress, reminders and reflections
How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components
Don’t use mnemonics for everything
Translating to improve your Chinese
The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese
Horizontal vocabulary learning
21 essential dictionaries and corpora for learning Chinese
14 extra songs to learn Chinese and expand your horizons
You shouldn’t walk the road to Chinese fluency alone
Is your flashcard deck too big for your own good?
The question you have to ask about your Chinese teacher or course
Learning the right chengyu the right way
Immersion at home or: Why you don’t have to go abroad to learn Chinese
You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old
Adding tone marks (w/o Pinyin) above characters to practise tones
Using Audacity to learn Chinese (speaking and listening)