30-Day Listening Challenge:
Frustrated because you can’t understand native Mandarin speakers?
Feeling lost in real-world Mandarin conversations?
Ready to change that?
Quick Guide (click & go):
> What is this?
It’s the most efficient way to learn a language.
Why?
Not all words and grammar are equally useful.
Mastering the top 1000 ones allows you to converse in Chinese on a wide range of topics.
It provides a very good basis for real-world communication.
How?
Focus first on the most frequently used vocabulary and grammar—the ones that native speakers use all the time.
It's like placing the key pieces of a puzzle first—it makes solving the bigger picture much easier.
The 1000 Challenge :
It's a 6-month course split into 25 digestible weeks, designed to be efficient without overwhelming.
Explanation in the video. Watch it here👇
Timestamps:
00:25 Study smarter&faster
00:41 1000 most frequent word ≈ 70% comprehension
01:04 “The 1000 Challenge”
01:21 How the words are selected?
01:34 Better than the HSK word list?
01:54 What’s in it?
Wanna take a quick look at the words?
👉 Click here to get the 500 most frequent Chinese words google sheets for FREE.
> What’s in it for me?
Weekly Video Lesson
A fresh new video lesson is released every week.
Efficient, No Overwhelm:
Learn 40 words and grammar points per week based on real-life usage frequency, not from impractical textbooks.
More Than Just 1000:
Comprehensible dialogues and real-life sentence examples for additional vocabulary and grammar insights are included.
Private Discord
Gives you a community to hold you accountable.
👉 Connect & Practice:
Free access to private Discord channels where you can connect with fellow challengers, participate in quizzes, engage in practice sessions, and ask questions, etc.
Homework
Each lesson comes with homework and practice material.
👉 Active recalling is essential! Homework encourages your independent practice and reinforce the learning.
Flashcards
One Anki deck per week, with high quality audio.
👉 Utilizing spaced repetition techniques can significantly improve the efficiency of your study sessions, helping you remember information more effectively over the long term.
> Is this for me?
This challenge is for you if:
You need a more practical and efficient approach than textbooks
You want to build a solid foundation for real-life communication
You have finished studying Pinyin
(Instructions for Pinyin are not included in this course, but you can learn it for free with the YouTube videos below.)
You are not fluent yet
(This course will help you reach a conversational level in real-life situations. You can take the quiz first to see if it suits your current level)
> How much is it?
> How does it work?
Learning Mandarin can be easy if you:
1. Apply the 80-20 principle
"80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts."
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule.
The principle suggests that, in many situations, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
Study smarter.
Prioritize learning the most frequently used words to enhance your understanding significantly!
Learning 1000 words with me in this challenge helps you to understand most of spoken and written communication
- How do you define “the most frequent”?
The answer is simple: data.
It’s not just randomly selected words that are easy to teach or have fewer character strokes.
It’s based on the research result from the best book “A Frequency Dictionary of Mandarin Chinese”.
The book provides a list of the most commonly used 5000 words and 2000 Chinese characters, based on a 50-million-word corpus composed of spoken, fiction, non-fiction, and news texts in current use.
Once you mastered the most common and meaningful words, it becomes much easier to:
> Express yourself more clearly
> Improve Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing skills at once
> Build a solid foundation to tackle challenging grammars and advanced vocabulary
2. Be consistent
"Consistency is key."
Learning Mandarin Chinese involves a combination of cognitive practice and muscle training (the physical act of articulating sounds).
👉 You can’t expect six-pack abs without committing to a workout.
👉 You won’t achieve your language goal without constant learning and practicing.
That’s why a subscription with new lessons updated weekly is the best way to keep you consistent and motivated.
This challenge is made for those who need a practical approach, a weekly reminder, and a community to hold you accountable.
Be consistent, even it’s only 10 mins per day.
Melody won’t shoot you a death stare like the Duolingo owl, but she’s committed to doing her best to motivate (or push) you along your journey!
> Who is Melody?
Melody Lyu
Background:
• Alumnus of Kyushu University, Japan, majored in Auditory Psychology.
• Holds a Master of Design.
• Fluent in English, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese.
• Currently learning Indonesian. Plans to learn German, French, Arabic, and Spanish in the near future.
“I think that a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time”
—Charlie Munger
I’m not a content creator, but a promoter of knowledge.
I’m fluent in 3 languages and freaking motivated to become the kind of language teacher I wish I had during my learning journey:
・Someone who not only imparts information but also inspires a desire for learning by providing the logic, structure, and principles to accelerate the learning process.
I strongly believe in self-education and lifelong learning.
Join me to help build the best global learning community where we can grow and thrive together. Let’s start with Mandarin Chinese, and look forward to much more innovation in language learning!
At the end of the day, seeking knowledge and helping others is the meaning we strive for.
> FAQ
Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time with no commitment.
If you cancel after the challenge has started, you will not be charged for any further months, but you will still have access to the course materials until the end of your current billing cycle. Please note that you will be charged for the current month, as cancellations take effect at the end of the billing period.
Additionally, if you cancel before the challenge starts, you are eligible for a full refund of any charges incurred. Simply log in to your account and manage your subscription settings.
The course runs for around 6 months (25 weeks), during which a new video featuring approximately 40 Mandarin words is uploaded every week. You can go back to the “Quick Guide” section for more details!
Subscribers gain access to private Discord channels (chat, practice, take quizzes, and join live sessions), homework assignments, and flashcards to supplement their learning experience.
