Linguist David Moser: How He Learned Chinese and Built a Life in China: S2E10

Send us Fan Mail

Learning Mandarin Chinese with Pleco and digital dictionaries is radically easier than it was a generation ago, but many learners still spend too much time on Chinese characters, radicals, and handwriting before they can actually speak and understand Mandarin. David Moser, longtime Mandarin educator, translator, and author of A Billion Voices, explains what modern learners should prioritize instead, including speaking and listening, Mandarin grammar, and context.

A Billion Voices: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/29501533-a-billion-voices

What You’ll Learn About Learning Mandarin Chinese, Pleco, and Fluency

• How Pleco changed learning Mandarin Chinese
• Why speaking and listening should come before Chinese handwriting
• How radicals affect Chinese character learning
• Why Chinese character phonetics don’t always match modern pronunciation
• How Mandarin grammar expresses time without English-style verb tense
• Why Mandarin relies so heavily on context
• How Mandarin pronouns differ from English

How Pleco and Digital Dictionaries Changed Learning Mandarin Chinese

Moser began teaching himself Mandarin around 1986 using John DeFrancis textbooks, Chinese friends, and homemade phrase books. After about a year and a half, he could hold basic conversations and understand enough Chinese structure to work through unfamiliar sentences.

That foundation took him to Peking University, where he helped check the Chinese translation of Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach. With no digital tools, he worked through handwritten Chinese manuscripts using the English original as a guide.

How Chinese Dictionaries Worked Before Pleco

Looking up a Chinese character once meant identifying its radical, counting strokes, finding the correct dictionary section, and searching the entries. Moser remembers spending several minutes on a single word and calls dictionary lookup almost “a whole course in itself.”

While reading Qian Zhongshu’s Fortress Besieged, he penciled definitions onto nearly every page so he wouldn’t have to search for the same words again. He jokingly calls the annotated book his “non-computer Pleco.”

Modern learners can now touch a character and get its pronunciation and meaning instantly. Radicals, handwriting, and character history can still matter, but beginners no longer need to master them before using Mandarin.

Why Mandarin Speaking and Listening Should Come Before Chinese Handwriting

Moser sees a problem when Chinese teaching treats characters as if they are the language itself. He considers speaking and listening the core language skills and points out that people can speak excellent Mandarin without writing it well.

Once learners know a word’s sound, meaning, and use, they can attach the written form to knowledge they already have. Digital tools let learners spend more time communicating instead of fighting with dictionary mechanics.

How Mandarin Chinese Grammar Uses Context Instead of English-Style Verb Tense

Chinese doesn’t mark tense on verbs in the same way English does, relying more on aspect and context. Learners often add information Mandarin doesn’t require because English has trained them to expect it.

That can make Chinese sentences feel incomplete to English speakers even when native speakers already have the information they need from context.

How Mandarin Chinese Pronouns Differ From English

Spoken tā can mean he, she, or it. Moser remembers conversations about an incoming professor where people discussed when tā would arrive and who would meet tā at the airport without specifying gender.

Mandarin distinguishes 哥哥, older brother, from 弟弟, younger brother, while English usually says only brother. Each language trains speakers to expect different information.

For Moser, that was part of Mandarin’s appeal from the beginning. He didn’t just want to use Chinese. He wanted to understand what it might be like to “think in Chinese.”

Original publication date: October 4, 2019

 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/

💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379

📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201

📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips:  https://podcaststeph.substack.com/