Non-Stop Learning ▏不断学习 búduàn xúexí

My work allows me to teach others language, support people in pursuing their own dreams and work with a team of talents. I’m constantly inspired by people in my contact. Some of them are executives in companies of different scales, some are stayed-home parents, and some are in the transit of their lives by acquiring new skills, all of whom are a testimony of these two words: non-stop learning.

Non-stop learning, 不断学习 búduàn xúexí in Chinese, is an attitude, the one that is essential for all aspects of our lives, and for language learning it’s no exception. For those of whose Mandarin skills have reached a certain level, this term must have already made its way to your vocab bank. If you haven’t encountered these Chinese characters, here can be a good learning moment on your journey of studying Chinese.

It’s a term that is super easy to comprehend too, making sense by word-to-word translation.  不断búduàn means non-stop and 学习xúexí is in accordant with the word learning. Click the audio below to hear how this phrase is pronounced by a native Chinese speaker.

Being able to keep learning feeds on our passion. If we are passionate enough on something, we will keep going. Passion is something we can grow into too, and so is the habit of non-stop learning, 不断学习 búduàn xúexí.

People often say Chinese is difficult to learn. Well, many of my country fellow men think English is a language too foreign and hard to master. It all depends on where we are and how we see it. Learning a new language is never easy, but is never a mission impossible as long as you have that non-stop learning spirit geared up. One of the myths in learning Chinese is that it’s boring and that memorizing the Chinese characters is a painstaking experience that all learners must wade through. The truth is if it’s boring, that means you likely need a different approach. Instead of using flashcards or repeated drilling, try to find a fun way like using skritter, or finding a native to speak with. The process of non-stop learning can be interesting if we are living it instead of learning it.

Some people come to me and say: I really want to learn the language, but I’m too busy and have no time for it. When we have a full-time job, this is a very reasonable retort. However, driven by the spirit of non-stop learning 不断学习 búduàn xúexí, we make time. The trick lies in priorities. Prioritizing your to-do-list is the key. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin either, so focus on one thing when in process.

Hopefully this post doesn’t read like preaching. All I’m trying to say is non-stop learning is too important to turn our back on. Not just in language learning, also in everything that matters in our lives, we need to equip ourselves with this mentality. Well, I hope by now this term不断学习 búduàn xúexí has made its way to your Chinese vocabulary capacity.

As always, please feel free to leave any comments. I would love to hear about your thoughts on this subject.