After the class, I grew the confidence to have my first real conversation and start really practicing. I believed I could converse with natives and wasn't as nervous about the situation (granted I was still VERY nervous)
Recently, my teacher invited me to attend a private lesson with some of his other students. I was excited as this likely would be both a new opportunity to learn, and a way to refresh and show him the progress that I've made. Attending the class was a wonderful experience for me. It wasn't due to the learning that I achieved during the class, but instead the opportunity to see how much I have improved since his class.
I quickly saw that most of the phrases and vocabulary that I use now were taught to me through real life conversations, not while attending a class. My confidence to speak was far greater than I realized while watching others in the class speak. Not only that, I noticed that my pronunciation was much closer to the style that the native speakers do than the other classmates.
I can't begin to praise how effective actually speaking with people did for me. When I first began learning how to speak Chinese, I would have to sit and rehearse fake conversations with myself in hopes that I would have the courage to actually go and initiate one someday. Now, I don't hesitate for that opportunity because I know the joy that it brings both myself for being able to speak, and them for having somebody willing to talk to them.
Anyways, here's a short video randomly talking about my weekend.
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