How to Improve Chinese Reading Skills
One essential part of learning a language is reading - you learn to read and by reading, learn. And thus the cycle continues.
With good reading skills, you may be able to read faster with more and more complex materials. By doing so, you also learn more from the things you read (positive feedback loop!), and you may even appreciate the language, culture, and artistic aspects behind the words.
If you're trying to improve your Chinese reading skills, there are a few things you should do as well as tried and true methods you can use to do it.
Have good dictionaries and tools available
Especially when you start new and fresh at a language, reading anything can be tough, and you'll have to refer to a dictionary frequently for the meaning. This kind of need goes down over time when you build up your vocabulary. But even seasoned learners still bump into situations where they need to look up a word.
Of course, nowadays there are many translation tools available. But if you want to have a Chinese-centric app/software for a dictionary, there are tools such as Pleco, MDBG, Arch Chinese, etc. Our Chinese learning tool - Pandaist also comes with a 100,000-word dictionary with simplified, traditional, and tone colors for every character. The dictionary is available for every article.
Flashcards
As mentioned above, building up your vocabulary is important - not only does it improve your reading efficiency, but it's also a fundamental part of learning a language.
Using flashcards is a good way to advance your vocabulary. They are compact, portable, and easy to use. They can be hand-made, hard-copy, or digital.
Choose flashcards that cover a variety of topics and have varying levels of difficulty, especially the ones that incorporate an SRS (Spaced Repetition System) to improve memorization.
A few good flashcard apps available are Anki and Memrise. They typically include built-in dictionaries and pronunciation guides.
Practice! - Read short stories, news, books, etc.
To improve reading comprehension, the essential part of it is, of course, reading! The more you read, the better you'll get.
For beginners, finding materials that are easy and fun to read is important. Short stories may be a great starting point. For example, children's stories and simple poems, or even simple comics in Chinese. It's also important to find reading materials that come with pinyin so that while you read, you also reinforce the pronunciations.
There are also easy and simple news stories available online. And as you get better at reading, you'll be able to read more complex news in Chinese and even Chinese books.
Overall, regular reading practice is the true key to mastering reading skills and reading comprehension. To assist your reading, graded reader apps are your great partners. There are many graded reader apps available, with reading content and materials available in different skill levels as well as various content categories. Find the ones you love and make it a fun thing to read!
Among many graded reader apps, our Chinese learning tool - Pandaist focuses on content reading, with materials including news, fictional stories, and non-fictional articles. All content comes with pinyin, tone color, and skill level (HSK level) indicators. It also combines audio, translation, dictionary, grammar rules, and various quizzes. All of these work together to help improve your reading and overall Chinese skills!
Reading out loud
One of the best ways to improve your reading ability in a language is to practice reading out loud. This helps you improve your pronunciation and intonation and also deepens your understanding of the context. Reading aloud strengthens the components of a word, increasing your ability to pronounce words correctly, and improving your Chinese reading fluency. It can also improve your Chinese reading speed and develop better reading comprehension.
In addition, speaking out loud helps you learn the rhythm and structure of the Chinese language. You can also develop your vocabulary by listening to materials of the right level. As you progress through the levels, you can even choose to listen to materials with Chinese subtitles. However, it is crucial to practice reading Chinese with the appropriate level of material!
Engaging in Chinese
One of the most effective ways of learning Chinese is directly talking to other people in Chinese. Either with other fellow Chinese learners/students or native speakers. You can find platforms where you can practice texting or chatting with others.
This requires you to use both passive as well as productive language skills because you have to both parse what the other person is saying and then respond in kind. This is a great way to pick up a lot of Chinese characters - particularly characters not necessarily included on the HSK lists. Through this process, you can see how words, phrases, and sentences are used in actions, as well as learn useful slang terms.
In addition to chatting and texting online, there are also opportunities for Chinese learners to meet up and talk in Chinese, which would be even more effective, and you can also make friends along the way. Of course, this kind of activity may not always be available, and it does require some level of skills in order to formulate sentences to make complete communication.
On top of meeting people in person, the most effective way may be directly going to a Chinese-speaking country (e.g. China and Singapore) and fully immersing yourself in the environment. No doubt there are obvious difficulties. But if you have the ability and are confident enough to navigate through a foreign country, I strongly recommend doing so! There is nothing like being immersed in a Chinese environment to pick up new words and quickly get used to the language.
Watch Chinese shows/movies with subtitles
Immersing yourself in the language is important, but it can be difficult to find opportunities to do it. However, there IS a way to do so at home - watch Chinese drama with subtitles (preferably with both Chinese and English subtitles, so you can compare and learn).
Here are some good Chinese shows to watch along with information on where they are available.
This method has the benefit of being both enjoyable and effective. Find the shows/movies that you like, so you have the edger to keep watching and learning at the same time!
But it's important to constantly remind yourself that you are trying to increase your reading ability, not just have fun (though you should still have fun)!
The best path towards Chinese literacy is really about some combinations of all of the methods mentioned above. Practicing and engaging with Chinese content consistently, interacting with other people, and immersing yourself in a Chinese-speaking environment. All these methods are how you'll gradually conquer the mountain of reading Chinese fluently.
