You Can Learn Chinese #31 Extensive Reading and the Path to Fluency
Mar 9, 2020
Mariano Mele, Argentina-born professional who learned Mandarin and moved to Beijing, shares his language-learning journey. He talks about how graded readers and extensive reading unlocked real-world milestones. Short anecdotes cover cultural surprises, shopping wins, and delivering business presentations to Chinese investors.
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Jared's Three Month Reading Breakthrough
- Jared read 10 graded-reader books in three months and went from broken phrases to conversational Chinese.
- He started at a 300-character level, read on commutes, and teammates immediately noticed rapid improvement.
Input Plus One Drives Natural Acquisition
- Krashen’s input hypothesis: learners need lots of comprehensible input slightly above current level (i+1) to improve.
- John explains i+1 lets context make new words/structures understandable so steady input drives progress.
Why 98 Percent Comprehension Matters
- Optimal learning happens at ~98% comprehension, not 90%, because unknown words at 90% often include critical meaning.
- Jared and John argue 90% leaves one in ten unknowns that distort understanding; 98% is one in 40–50.