Learn Advanced Chinese || It Can Be Done!

Reaching an advanced level in Chinese takes more than just textbooks and classroom study.

While structured learning is essential, true mastery comes from total immersion—surrounding yourself with the language in real-world contexts.

But what does that actually mean?

What strategies are most effective when pushing past the intermediate plateau and aiming for fluency?

In this guide, we’ll explore the best methods to take your Mandarin skills to the next level, including which apps to use, tried-and-tested study techniques and even how Chinese music, media and real-life friends can all help!

Learning Advanced Chinese | Listen to Chinese Music

Learning Advanced Chinese | Watch Chinese Media

Learning Advanced Chinese | Get Chinese Friends

Learning Advanced Chinese | Use Chinese Apps

Learning Advanced Chinese | Use Apps in Chinese

Learning Advanced Chinese | Use Chinese Social Media

Learning Advanced Chinese | Intermediate vs Advanced Study Techniques

Learn Advanced Chinese || Listen to Chinese Music

If you love music, this method will be one of the easiest—and most enjoyable—ways to improve your Chinese. Plus, what better excuse to say you’re “studying” while simply enjoying some tunes on your commute?

For those outside of China, listening to Chinese music is a fantastic way to immerse yourself in the language and push your skills to an advanced level. Depending on your proficiency, you can start by passively absorbing the sounds and rhythms or take a more active approach by translating lyrics and analyzing their meaning.

Just keep in mind—song lyrics are often poetic and abstract, making them tricky to translate word for word. But that challenge is all part of the fun!

Using Chinese apps such as QQ Music or also YouTube, you can read the lyrics along with the song, karaoke style.

This also helps with your character-reading ability!

Our top songs to start off with?

🎵 “The Moon Represents My Heart” (月亮代表我的心) by Teresa Teng

🎵 “How Have You Been?” (你，好不好？) by Eric Chou

🎵 “Later” (后来) by Rene Liu

Learn Advanced Chinese || Watch Chinese Media

Similar to listening to Chinese music, watching Chinese media can be very beneficial when it comes to immersing yourself in the language.

No matter what your level, you can use watching Chinese media as a great way to study.

🐣 Basic: Watch Chinese films and dramas in Chinese with English subtitles. This will help you to get used to the tones and sounds of the language.

💪 Intermediate: Watch some of your favourite films in Chinese. Get on the Lion King in Chinese, or your other favourite Disney films and try to understand as much as you can. You already know the storyline, so you don’t need to worry about concentrating too much and getting lost!

👏 Advanced: Watch a new Chinese film or drama – no subtitles! No cheating!

👑 Pro: Watch a new Chinese film or drama and every new word you discover or new grammar construction you don’t understand, pause and look it up. At the end of the film, go over the new words you’ve just learnt!

Learn Advanced Chinese || Get a Chinese Boyfriend/Girlfriend

Dating in China can be both a culture shock and an exciting adventure—and it’s also a great way to improve your Chinese!

For English speakers, using languages like German, French, or Spanish in relationships can sometimes be tricky, as many Europeans speak excellent English. It’s easy to default to English rather than struggling through their native language, especially if their English is significantly better than your foreign language skills.

But Chinese is different. Unlike in many European countries, English proficiency is far less common in China—even in major cities like Beijing or Shanghai, let alone smaller towns and rural areas. This means that if you’re dating in China, you’ll likely be communicating in Chinese most of the time, whether it’s during conversations, arguments, or even just daily texting.

So, how does this help your Chinese?

✅ Total Language Immersion – Speaking Chinese every day in real-life situations will boost your fluency faster than classroom learning.

✅ Expanding Your Vocabulary – Relationships introduce you to new words, phrases, and cultural nuances that textbooks won’t teach you.

✅ Mastering Chinese Texting – Chinese dating culture often involves a lot of texting. Get ready to type characters quickly, resist relying on WeChat’s translation feature, and improve your written communication skills.

✅ Handling Emotional Conversations – Ever argued in Chinese? Learning to express emotions and navigate sensitive topics in another language is a huge step toward fluency.

If you’re open to dating in China, why not give it a try and see where it takes you?

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Learn Advanced Chinese || Make Chinese Friends

Getting Chinese friends is not only a great way to learn the language but also learn and understand more about the culture.

You will hear Chinese as it is used in a natural environment by people of your age.

The Chinese you want to be learning.

Sure, speaking to one Chinese friend is impressive. But can you hold your own speaking Chinese in front of a group of 5 or 6? 

If you put yourself in a position where you have to speak Chinese, and you’ll be mimicking the environment in which you learnt your first language as a child.

You need to speak the language, so you have to learn Chinese. This way, learning Chinese will come much more natural to you.

Plus, get Chinese friends and they can tell you all about the latest Chinese social media trends, the best Chinese music, and give you some great tips on some good films and dramas to watch.

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Learn Advanced Chinese || Use Chinese Apps

If you’ve made the move to China, using Chinese apps is something unavoidable. Many of the common apps such as DiDi and WeChat are available in English.

However, some apps you can’t live without, such as Waimai take-out services, are not available in English.

So, you’re going to have to start on your learning Chinese, lest you go hungry! 

Using Chinese apps means that without the knowledge of the Chinese characters – you can’t do much on the app. So you’ll find that within hours of usage you’ll have picked up a whole new, albeit probably very specific, vocabulary.

My favourite apps I use every day that are only available in Chinese are QQ music (Spotify) and iQiYi (Netflix).

Both are cheaper than their western counterparts, and arguably better! You can only use both of these apps whilst in China, but there is also a download feature. Downloading films and dramas on iQiYi takes up very little space and same with QQ music.

Learn Advanced Chinese || Use Apps in Chinese

An alternative to using Chinese apps, and probably for the more advanced learner, use your apps in Chinese!

Most apps will have an option to choose the language. Simply change your favourite or most used apps to Chinese… And suddenly learning those characters became a lot more vital!

If you’re ready to take the plunge, why not change your whole phone into Chinese. If this isn’t enough motivation for you learning Chinese, I don’t know what is!

(It is best to have a Chinese speaker on hand once you make this change and then panic wondering what on earth you’ve gotten yourself into)

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Learn Advanced Chinese || Use Chinese Social Media

Using Chinese social media will open you up to a whole new world of vocabulary. Internet, colloquial language. Chinese slang.

Whilst not something your Chinese teacher may be too thrilled about you learning, it certainly helps you to speak like a native – and look super hip and cool in front of your Chinese buddies.

It also helps you to keep up with the latest trends and things going on in the world. Social media is a big part of everyday life in China.

Something that goes viral on one platform will start to appear in shop windows, in the streets etc. Don’t get left out!

Learn Advanced Chinese || Intermediate Vs Advanced Study Techniques

For a lot of students, the leap from intermediate to advanced level is far more difficult than the leap from beginner to intermediate. Lots of students get stuck in the dreaded intermediate plateau.

This doesn’t need to be the case. There are plenty of ways for you to advance your Chinese language level.

At the intermediate level, you might spend lots of time studying with materials designed for language learners, like textbooks, guided readers and language learner videos.

However, in the advanced stages, your language learning will become more specialized and you’ll start incorporating a lot more authentic, native-level materials into your study routine as you take your Chinese from the classroom out into the real world.

It’s important to ask yourself questions like ‘What are my goals for learning Chinese?’ and ‘Which language skills do I want to focus on the most?’

After all, once you know where you’re going, it’s a lot easier to get there!

Your study methods should align with your learning goals.

If your aim is conversational fluency, watching Chinese TV shows can be incredibly effective. Try watching episodes twice—once with subtitles and once without—while taking notes on new vocabulary. This will help reinforce comprehension and expose you to natural speech patterns.

For those learning Mandarin for work, a different approach is needed. Instead of entertainment-based content, focus on news articles, industry-specific reports, and formal Chinese texts to build a professional vocabulary and understand how Chinese is used in business or academic settings.

To truly reach an advanced level, regular spontaneous conversation is essential. Whether it’s with a teacher, language partner, or even ChatGPT, challenge yourself to think and speak in Chinese without mentally translating or relying on overly structured sentences. The goal is to develop fluency and confidence in real-time conversations.

In addition to these strategies, make language practice a daily habit. Even on busy days, a quick five-minute vocabulary review (using apps like Memrise or Anki) can keep your progress on track.

And most importantly—immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. If you’re not living in China, get creative! Surround yourself with Chinese media, join online language groups, and seek out every opportunity to engage with the language in a meaningful way.

加油 – jia you!

Advanced Chinese || FAQs