There’s a student in my class who spent over 2,000 yuan on a course that claims you can start speaking Chinese after listening to it while you sleep for three months.

There are courses like that for English too. Several parents in my class have bought them for their children. How is he doing?

He’s been listening for a month. Now, when I call on him in class, he says there’s no rush—once he’s listened enough, he’ll naturally be able to speak.

I’ve heard parents say that too. They say, “Don’t children learn to speak simply by listening?”

But children have people talking to them every day, and someone responds whether they cry or laugh. If you just play a recording while someone’s asleep, who’s going to respond to them?

True. Those kids in my class get quite a few listening questions right, but when I call on them to read the text aloud, they still stumble over their words.

Understanding what you hear and being able to say it yourself are two different things. You could watch someone ride a bicycle ten thousand times, but you’d still fall when you got on one yourself.

So what are you going to do? You’ve already spent over 2,000 yuan. If you tell him to stop listening, he definitely won’t agree.

He can keep listening, but he has to speak in class. I’ll call on him first thing in class tomorrow.