Meet Jorrit: From Personal Connection to Passion for Chinese
Jorrit, a PR manager in Berlin, grew up bilingual in Frisian and Dutch, later mastering English, French, and German. Chinese wasn’t on his radar until he met his wife, whose heritage sparked his interest in the language and culture.
From self-study to immersive experiences in China, Jorrit's dedication took him from beginner to advanced fluency. In this interview, he shares his challenges, strategies, and insights, offering inspiration for anyone learning Chinese.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?
My name is Jorrit. I'm from the Netherlands and work as a public relations manager and editor in Berlin. I grew up bilingually with Frisian and Dutch, learned English, French and German at school. Although always interested in languages, I never imagined speaking Chinese. If I'd ever picked up another language it would probably have been Swedish which feels „closer to home“. It wasn't until I met my future wife, who grew up in China, that I started developing a serious interest in the language, the country and its history. As time went on, I also met more and more Chinese friends and we started planning for our first trip to China together. Not being able to understand anything just wasn't an option, so I decided that I had to acquire at least a basic level of Chinese.
Can you walk us through your Chinese learning journey from the beginning to where you are now?
I first started self-studying with materials that I could get from the university library, which were the usual textbooks that are used to teach Chinese in Germany. Generally not bad, but a little outdated and not designed for learning on your own. I also used online materials like the FSI Standard Chinese course that uses lots of drills and repetition, which I found useful. To say it was a complete waste of time would be too harsh, yet the foundations I built during this time were shaky, too say the least, especially my tones and overall pronunciation were really bad.
That's why I decided to study Chinese Language and Culture in Frankfurt for at least 3 semesters in order to gain HSK 4 level (I figured that would equal 'fluent' and make me happy).
In Frankfurt, I joined the regular program with small language classes, a clear curriculum and enthusiastic Chinese teachers who helped me a lot. The third semester took me to China. I managed to rearrange things a bit, and instead of going to Fudan University in Shanghai, I went to visit the less prestigious Henan University in Kaifeng and stayed immersed 24/7 with my parents in law. This is where I made the fastest progress and I've never felt so immersed in the language and culture since. My comprehension and fluency improved and I passed HSK 4 with almost the full score, so I had reached my goal. At the same time, I felt that 4 months were too short and more could have been accomplished if I could have stayed longer.
But after that, I unfortunately wasn't able to continue my studies. Back in Germany, I did pass HSK 5. To avoid forgetting everything I had worked so hard for and encourage myself to continue making progress, I started a blog about learning Chinese. This blog has kept me going for almost 6 years now, allowing me to test new apps, review books and experiment with various approaches.
What were the biggest challenges you faced as you progressed, especially when transitioning from intermediate to advanced?
One challenge going from intermediate to advanced – especially when self-studying – is to stay motivated, because progress feels much slower and less obvious. I have many occasions where I started something – like studying HSK 6 vocabulary lists – and gave up after a while. My best answer to this is to focus on smaller goals like reading novels for an X amount of time every week, listening to Chinese content, speaking Chinese (even to myself) and writing on a daily or weekly basis.
Apart from that I have many „Baustellen“ (construction zones) as we say in German. I think pronunciation is a never ending topic. The same goes for characters. Handwriting is not that essential to me, but deepening my understanding to read complex texts requires more 'hanzi'-study.
What specific methods, tools, or resources helped you the most in achieving fluency?
Although I'm a big fan of learning apps and tested a great deal of them, I believe I profited the most from Chinese language classes combined with a Chinese-speaking environment which allowed me to practice any new input I got right away. Chinese class provided the guidance I needed, while Chinese friends and family gave me feedback and a sense of purpose. I also knew that I couldn't continue my studies forever because of financial reasons, which motivated me to really go for it while I still could.
If I had to name one app that was essential, then it would be Pleco to look up vocabulary, stroke diagrams and track my search history for making (handwritten) notes.
How do you create opportunities to practice Mandarin in your daily life?
I have the advantage that I'm married to a Chinese partner, so I hear and speak the language everyday and also get plenty of input from my children learning Chinese, even though we are currently not living in China. Apart from that, I have my learning routines which entails listening to Chinese content (Mandarin Corner for example) and using apps like Talkpal, Readibu and Dot Languages.
How has learning Chinese changed your perspective on Chinese-speaking cultures or influenced your personal growth?
Learning Chinese has put lots of things into perspective. As a Dutch student of German linguistics and literature, I'd look into Dutch-German cultural differences a lot, like our different ways of handling politeness and hierarchy, but these aspects are really taking place on a micro-level compared to the Dutch-Chinese experience. Coming back from China, Europe felt smaller and I started preferring some Chinese cultural habits to our own. Like the importance of a fine meal shared together and the Chinese way of making guests feel at home.
To me learning Chinese is basically reinventing your persona: like so many others before me I had to pick a new name for myself and transfer my story into a Chinese context. It's almost a guarantee for personal growth, if you take it seriously and don't give up.
What are your favorite aspects of the Chinese language or culture?
What I like about Chinese is that you can often say very complex things with relatively few words. That actually starts with something as simple as 我吃饱了 or 我吃腻了. In a language like Dutch and certainly German, you need many more syllables for that. Plus, the verbs have to be conjugated. In Chinese, you can say it short and powerfully (German: ich habe satt gegessen / ich habe es satt zu essen).
What advice would you give to learners who are at the intermediate level and want to reach advanced fluency?
Progressing from intermediate to advanced in its most basic sense means getting better, but for me the question to ask would be getting better at what? Do you want to read the Chinese news, negotiate trade deals, play Chinese online games or do you have certain areas where you're still struggling? Especially if you're self-studying, I noticed that you need specific goals and focus areas, to avoid getting lost and losing motivation. In other words, it's hard to give general advice. I personally enjoy using ChatGPT and AI language tutors. They're a great and affordable option for writing, reading, listening and even speaking to some extent, but most of all, they can be very helpful for personalizing your learning, allowing you to practice almost any kind of topic anytime, from hobbies to the next job interview.
What were the things that surprised you the most in your journey?
Many things surprised me in China. Like why grown-up people literally fight over who has the honor of paying the bill in a restaurant (Dutch people prefer 'to go Dutch', right)? Why do people waste so much energy bargaining when buying even the most basic groceries on the market? Why is a common cold treated as a severe illness?
The Chinese curiosity surprised me as well. Once, while buying a new cellphone in a local store, we got into a chat with the lady shop owner. Before long, she asked all kinds of questions that Dutch people would consider too private (and not relevant for the purpose of selling a phone), like did I have a car? How much money did I make? Did I own a house? Nothing uncommon in China, but uncomfortable for someone coming from Western-Europe. Even though the Dutch have quite a reputation for being too blunt and direct, they rarely disclose their financial situation.
Was it some particular aspect of the language that surprised you?
Chinese dialects give me a hard time. You spend so much effort 'mastering' Mandarin and then someone speaks in some local variety and you're just completely lost.
I still find it funny when Chinese people from Sichuan and other southern regions mix up 'l' and 'n'. My Chinese neighbor asked me about 'lengyuan', how I was handling the 'lengyuan'. She kept repeating the word, because it didn't ring a bell, but then I figured she was referring to 'néngyuán - 能源 ' and had some questions about her energy provider. On the other hand, I get laughed at when I mess up to pronounce 'shi' and 'she' properly, a difference that's completely obvious to most Chinese native speakers.
Are there some common misconceptions about the language that you believe are not true?
Many people still think that Chinese is one of the hardest languages on the planet to learn. I think that's only (partly) true when by learning people mean achieving native-like proficiency, where in reality you merely need a certain degree of 'fluency' to be able to communicate with Chinese people. In plain terms, there's no need to become 'near native' for most learners. Apart from that, you can find an abundance of resources, both online and offline, many of them free or very affordable. Compare that to smaller languages like my native language Frisian for example, where currently no learning app and only a limited amount of learning materials are available.
Do you have your favorite Chinese idiom or saying you would like to share with us?
At home, we use 乐极生悲 a lot, when my kids take a good thing too far. 不要乐极生悲！I also like 对牛弹琴 . Once you see the image of someone playing a lute to a cow, it becomes quite easy to remember. But the best advice for Chinese learning is to not 半途而废 and keep at it!
乐极生悲 (lè jí shēng bēi): Joy begets sorrow; extreme happiness may lead to sadness.
对牛弹琴 (duì niú tán qín): To play the lute to a cow; to speak to the uncomprehending or preach to deaf ears.
半途而废 (bàn tú ér fèi): To give up halfway; to leave something unfinished.
