Day 29: Conversation day
Nothing new today. Close the grammar.
Twenty-eight days of input need one day of pure output before the test. Say all of it out loud — reading today silently is the same as skipping it.
⚠️ And no English. Not once. When you get stuck, use section 4.
1. How today works
| Out loud | every line, even alone |
|---|---|
| No English | if you cannot say it, say it badly, or say 这个怎么说? |
| No looking things up | finish the scenario first |
| Record at least two | you will want them tomorrow |
| ★ Tones stay on | ⚠️ do not let questions rise at the end |
★ Fluency is not knowing more. It is being willing to continue while you are wrong.
2. Warm-up — twenty questions, fast
Answer each in a full sentence, out loud, without pausing. Under three minutes.
- 你叫什么名字?
- 你是哪国人?
- 你住在哪儿?
- 你多大?
- 你做什么工作?
- 你家有几口人?
- 你有兄弟姐妹吗?
- 现在几点?
- 今天星期几?
- 你的生日是几月几号?
- 你有什么爱好?
- 你喜欢什么菜?
- 你能吃辣吗?
- 你怎么去学校?
- 你几点起床?
- ★ 你昨天做了什么?
- 你明天要做什么?
- 你为什么学中文?
- ★ 你去过中国吗?
- ★ 你周末做了什么?
⚠️ If you hesitated on 16, 19 or 20, that is 了 and 过. Redo those three before moving on — they are the questions you will be asked most in real life.
3. Five scenarios
Use the Role-play mission. Minimum turns in brackets.
① Arriving — a stranger on the street (6 turns)
- 请问 + how to get to the subway station
- Fail to understand — ask for it slowly
- ★ Repeat it back and confirm — …对吗?
- Ask which line, which exit, how long
- Thank them
★ Required: 请问 · 怎么走 · 请说慢一点儿 · …对吗? · 几号线 / 几号出口
② Small talk — a language exchange (8 turns)
- Names (你叫什么名字 / 您贵姓), nationality, job
- ★ 是 for nouns, 很 for adjectives — do not mix them
- Family, with 有/没有 and measure words
- What you both like — 喜欢, 最喜欢, ★ 不太喜欢
- ★ What you did at the weekend — and answer when asked back
★ Required: 我是…人 · 我很… · 我有一个… · 不太 · 我周末去了…
③ Ordering and paying (8 turns)
- 服务员! · 来一个… with measure words
- Ask what they recommend, ask 这个辣不辣?
- 好吃 for food, 好喝 for the drink
- 买单! · 可以扫码吗? · offer to pay and ★ lose gracefully with 下次我请你
④ Making plans — and turning something down (8 turns)
- A friend proposes — …怎么样? / 好不好?
- Say no with a reason — ★ 因为…所以… or 我得…
- Say what you 想 do and what you 不能 do
- Propose another day, and ask 可以吗?
- ★ Close with 我要走了
⑤ Something went wrong (6 turns)
Pick one: you missed the train · you're unwell · you're lost · you lost your wallet.
- ★ Explain what happened — 了 / 没
- Say how you feel — 我不太舒服 / 我很紧张 / 我有点儿累
- Ask for help — 你能帮我吗? / 可以…吗?
- Say what you'll do now — 我要…
4. ★★ The ten phrases that keep a conversation alive
Say these out loud right now, twice each. ★ They are worth more than any grammar here, because they are what stops the other person switching to English.
| 我不懂。 | I don't understand |
|---|---|
| 请再说一遍。 | Please say it again |
| 请说慢一点儿。 | Please speak more slowly |
| 这个怎么说? | How do you say this? |
| 我中文不太好。 | My Chinese isn't very good |
| 那个… | ★ um… |
| 怎么说呢… | how should I put it… |
| 让我想想。 | let me think |
| ★ 原来如此。 | Ah, I see |
| ★ …对吗? | …is that right? (confirming a summary) |
★ And keep saying 嗯 / 是啊 / 对对对 while listening. Chinese conversation expects noise back; silence reads as incomprehension.
★ A learner who uses these has conversations. A learner who goes silent has lessons.
5. Three minutes, unprepared
Pick one at random — do not choose the easy one — and talk for three minutes with no notes. Record it.
- 我的一天 — your day, waking to sleeping (times, 在, 坐…去)
- 我的家人 — everyone, where they live, what they do (有, 的, measure words)
- 我住的地方 — what's near you, how you get around (在 vs 有, position words)
- ★ 上个周末 — what you did (了 and 过 — the hard one)
- 我为什么学中文 — and what you'll do with it (因为…所以, 想, 要)
⚠️ If you dry up, do not stop. Use 那个… 怎么说呢… 让我想想… and keep the clock running. Filling three minutes badly beats ninety perfect seconds — tomorrow is five.
6. What broke? — diagnose before tomorrow
Listen back to one recording and tick honestly:
| Fix tonight | |
|---|---|
| ⬜ ★ My tones flattened out when I got nervous | Day 1 + podcast. The biggest one |
| ⬜ ★ My questions rose at the end | Day 6 — pitch is spelling |
| ⬜ I said 是 before an adjective | Day 5 §2 |
| ⬜ I put the time or place after the verb | Day 22 §1 |
| ⬜ I dropped measure words | Day 11 |
| ⬜ I used 不 where 没 belonged | Day 23 §1 |
| ⬜ I put 了 after 没 | Day 26 §3 |
| ⬜ I went silent | Section 4 — the only one that really costs you |
★ Measure words are the cheapest error in Chinese and the one learners worry about most. Nobody has ever been misunderstood because of 一个书. ⚠️ Tones are the expensive one. Do not spend tonight on measure words. Spend it on tones and on §4.
7. 📲 Upload to LangNote
Upload section 2 (the twenty questions) and section 4 (the ten phrases) → study language Chinese.
| Mission | What to do with it today |
|---|---|
| 🎭 Role-play | Today's key mission. All five scenarios, no English |
| 🗣 Shadowing | Your three-minute recording — listen back, then do it again better |
| 🎧 Podcast | The twenty questions, so they arrive by ear tomorrow, not by eye |
| ✍️ Dictation | Only if time is left. Today is a speaking day |
⚠️ Prepare for tomorrow
- ★ Find your Day 1 recording — the ten sentences from Day 1 §8. Tomorrow you read
the same ones, and the two files side by side are the point of all thirty days
- Have your Day 7 / 14 / 21 numbers ready — ★ especially the tone percentage
- Block 45 minutes
- Sleep — it is a speaking test, and tiredness flattens tones first
★ Twenty-nine days behind you. Tomorrow is not about learning anything new — it is about finding out how far you came.
langNote is a paid subscription and this course recommends it. The 30 lessons are free and complete either way.