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This is more of a culture note. Be modest. No matter how good your Chinese is, when you get compliments on how good you are at Chinese is (which will definitely happen!), always disagree and say them it isn’t really so (you should know how to say that by now). To show modesty is a very important part of Chinese culture!

When we talk about ‘working hard’ to learn a new language, we certainly don’t mean putting in hours of your day into learning a new language. In fact, we don’t recommend that. What we do recommend is putting in 20 minutes a day into these lessons – they don’t even need to be together. One part can be listening to the podcast lesson on the way to work. Another part could be doing the exercises at home on your review day – or reviewing the lesson in front of your computer screen. However, we strongly believe that putting in these 20 minutes is more efficient than the hours a day some spend in language schools that use ineffective methods; so congratulations for working smart to achieve your goals!