HeyJaredYou Can Learn Chinese
Learn HOW to learn Chinese with hosts Jared Turner and John Pasden. You will learn tips, strategies, and insights so you can supercharge your language learning. You will also be inspired by guest interviews with people from all over the world who have learned Chinese.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 7
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest episodes
A Language, a Leap, a New Life: Cassandre Egolf’s Journey into Chinese (opens the original)
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Sharing a heater with the family dog during Chinese New Year. Sitting in the front seat of taxis to practice Chinese with the drivers. Rehearsing a speech in Chinese to thank her team at a store opening in Shenzhen. For Cassandre Egolf, learning Chinese has become inseparable from her life in China. Growing up in France, Cassandre heard plenty about China from her mother, an Air France flight attendant who had studied Chinese herself. Cassandre wasn't particularly interested. Years later, strand
Great Teachers Don’t Fill Your Head; They Light a Fire (opens the original)
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In celebration of Teachers’ Day in China, Jared and John reflect on the teachers who have shaped their language-learning journeys and what actually makes a great teacher. They share stories of teachers who were hilarious, inspiring, technically brilliant, and sometimes simply there with the right advice at exactly the right moment. They also discuss the different strengths of native and non-native language teachers, why experience and expertise can make such a difference, and an important truth
From Soft Serve to Stand-Up Comedy: Turner Sparks’ Excellent Chinese Misadventure (opens the original)
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In a mildly confusing bit of podcast naming, Jared Turner sits down with comedian Turner Sparks. Turner moved to China in 2004 to teach English, planning to stay for just one year. He ended up staying for twelve. In this episode of You Can Learn Chinese, Turner talks about learning Chinese out of necessity, from struggling through everyday conversations with almost no shared language to using Chinese while building and running a business across China. Turner shares stories from his years in Suzh
The Frustrated Learner and the Sound of Progress (Replay) (opens the original)
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Jared and John discuss the frustrations faced by a learner who came to John for help—particularly with pinyin and distinguishing similar sounds in Chinese. They explore why learners often misapply English pronunciation rules to pinyin and how comprehensible input can help ease the learning curve. This episode serves as both a deep dive into the phonetic and perceptual challenges of learning Chinese and a reassuring reminder that, while the path to fluency can be frustrating, personalized strateg
Following a Century-Old Path to China: Ben Lee and the Legacy That Led Him Back (opens the original)
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What does it mean to walk in the footsteps of an ancestor whose life connected China and America more than a century ago? In this episode, Ben Lee shares how moving to Wuhan in 1992 pushed him to learn Chinese for survival—and eventually led him back to a remarkable family legacy. His great-grandfather was part of the Qing Dynasty’s Chinese Educational Mission, became an early voice in Chinese American literature, and even crossed paths with Mark Twain. Ben and Jared explore heritage, identity,
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