Challenge: Can I reach 500 hours of speaking Chinese on YouTube?

According to this, I'm at "19 days, 16 hours, 58 minutes, 5 seconds" or 473 hours.  I've already uploaded maybe 15 or so hours of more videos (they automatically become public, one per day).  I'm a stone's throw away from reaching 500 hours, and now I've "disappeared" from YouTube... one of my VPNs has run out of data for this month (video files are huge, and simply uploading 500 hours of videos to YouTube from China is a fairly major undertaking).  My second VPN has this issue, so I can't log in.  So I don't have a VPN, and can't access YouTube right now.

While waiting for next month when my VPN will be usable again, I updated my operating system (a crisp new Linux Mint).  After some faffing around, the software seems to be running much smoother than before, but I'm having a few hardware issues.  I think the main issue is because I have cheap cables (I have to simultaneously plug in a USB mic, mouse, hard disk, and my phone/camera), so my camera and/or mic sporadically disconnect, and if I'm not paying close attention to the video, I don't even notice and continue recording.

I'm planning on going to Australia in August, and see friends and family who I haven't seen since before the pandemic, and maybe take the September HSK6 exam while I'm outside of China (but I'm a bit apprehensive about this, considering what happened last time).  To this end, I'm going to need to get rid of a lot of my books---they're simply too heavy to carry.  So nowadays I'm focusing on getting the most out of my books before I "offload" them in some way.

I'm tempted to try my hand a livestreaming (it makes dealing with storing and uploading files so much easier).  It's hard to livestream on YouTube in China, as you need a portable VPN.  So I'm tempted to try one of the Chinese platforms, and see what happens, but I have no experience on them, and I'm rather worried about inadvertently saying something that people react negatively towards.  I might try livestreaming on YouTube in Australia while I'm there too.

Congratulations on how well you have stuck with this project. Always good to see something like this all the way through, regardless of obstacles.

@becky82 Please forgive me if I missed the follow-up in another thread or elsewhere, but I noticed that you've kept up with the YouTube videos since your last post on the topic two years ago. How is it going?

I'm thinking of undertaking a similar endeavor and was wondering if you think it's worthwhile.

The reason why I'm intrigued by this approach is because I have come across a bunch of Reddit threads and other sources that indicate that "self-talk" is one of the best ways to learn English, so I assume that the same is probably true for Chinese. Making YouTube videos seems like a great way to formalize self-talk and create the type of accountability that will encourage me to stick with it in the long-term. Also, for years I have simply focused on reading/listening input and conversation, and I'm excited to actually try to contribute something tangible in Chinese vs just continuously practice it.

If you had to start the whole project over, would you? Would you do anything different?

Also, I noticed that you're almost up to 1,000 subscribers! That's quite an achievement, congratulations!

When it comes to YouTube, you might as well give it a try.  Early on, you have virtually zero subscribers and views, so it really doesn't matter.  They say you always end up deleting your first 20 videos anyway (because they're terrible).  If you give it a try, good luck!

Definitely I could notice the improvement in speaking ability after about 100 hours of speaking aloud and talking to myself (mostly).  It's a bit different to interactive conversations, because you don't get to rest and think about what to say next; it's more like a lecture or speech (although now there is ChatGPT and you can have conversations).

It's both helpful and unhelpful.

Helpful: Having an audience (even though it's largely imaginary: basically nobody watches my videos in whole) certainly makes me pay more attention to what I say, and helps me stay on track.  I often explain things aloud, which helps consolidate knowledge.  I've gotten better at knowing the correct tones when reading aloud.  Sometimes people leave encouraging comments; sometimes people leave useful comments.  While I spend a large amount of time sitting in my room studying, it feels less solitary to have a YouTube channel.  It's far cheaper than speaking with an iTalki teacher.  When I watch myself speaking Chinese in videos, I notice things I don't notice in my head.  If you have a YouTube playlist, there are online tools which can tell you the total time of the playlist.

Unhelpful: You need to worry about copyright which restricts what activities you can do (so e.g., I won't be able to do 100+ hours of listening, unless it's AI generated content, or someone posts their YouTube videos with a CC license (e.g. this one is listed as "Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)")).  Technical issues can affect your study (uploading, hardware, software, etc.).  You train yourself to speak like a YouTuber, constantly hedging everything, making sure you don't say anything for which you can get sued, and you end up asking for likes, subscribes, etc.  Sometimes I postpone/delay study to make a video later on.  Random people on the Internet get angry at you for random things (particularly when US politicians stir up anti-China sentiment), although this is fairly rare.  To have a successful YouTube channel, you need to be "kinda okay" at a range of different things (video editing, image editing [thumbnails], making subtitles, hardware, software, acting, marketing, etc.).  Even things like clothes and makeup I have to think about.  You'll also need to edit videos (e.g., if you're recording a video, and some website reveals your personal information), which takes time away from learning Chinese.  And I live in China where YouTube is blocked, which isn't so helpful when you upload large files to YouTube day after day.  Livestreaming to YouTube or Twitch (both blocked in China) is also quite challenging, and you have to be additionally careful not to accidentally broadcast e.g. Taylor Swift (because a nearby cafe played one of her songs).  You might end up setting goals that are interesting for a YouTube audience, but are not necessarily good for your education.  Also spammers and scammers exist.

It's tricky trying to find a middle-ground between "I want to improve my Chinese" and "I'd like to have a successful channel".  E.g. YouTube audiences want to watch short videos, but if I make short videos, then it's simply not enough practice to improve.

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If you had to start the whole project over, would you? Would you do anything different?

Well, if there was something I'd do differently, I would do it that way now.  The journey is not over, and there's unanswered questions:

• Should I pay for professional editing?
• Should I be narrating stories (comprehensible input)?
• Should I be teaching Chinese?
• Should I be using AI-generated voices, or pay native speakers for narration?
• Should I try to get a better score on the HSK6, or should I take the HSK7-9 exam?
• Should I just make Chinese content, e.g., teach graph theory?

(I also tried making a chess YouTube channel, but I think I prefer Chinese instead.)

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Also, I noticed that you're almost up to 1,000 subscribers! That's quite an achievement, congratulations!

Thanks!  It's taken a while.  I had a bit of a break after passing the HSK6.

Amazing job! Your 500-hour Chinese speaking goal is inspiring. Love your commitment, keeping mistakes and all. Sharing on YouTube is bold! Try talking about personal stories, Chinese culture, or fun idioms. Keep it up!

@becky82 as someone who has taken the HSK 6, and presumably thinking about taking the 7-9, did you take the HSK 2 level 6 or the new HSK 3 level 6? presumably it was the HSK 2 level 6: is the new 7-9 a direct follow on exam that is more difficult than that HSK 2 level 6? I've been trying to figure out how they correlate for some time now

The HSK6 I took (nearly a year ago now) was still using the 2.0 standards.  I don't think the 3.0 standards have actually been implemented yet (unless there's been recent news I'm unaware of).  I had to take the HSKK高级 too, and I did terribly on that.

The HSK7-9 exam is the 3.0 standards, though.  By sheer fluke, of the few places in the world where the HSK7-9 exam is actually conducted, one happens to be Weihai, where I live.  I haven't taken the HSK7-9; I haven't even begun preparing for it.  The exam format is significantly different to the HSK6 (see my post here; e.g., there's a new "translation" section), and it's really long (the first part starts at 9am and continues until 12:10 for lunch [with a 10 minute break], then after lunch there's 30 minutes of speaking).  So I wouldn't think it's a "follow-on exam", but I don't know for sure.

Love that you read 猫城记，I'll check out your videos, and might consider doing something like this myself. Maybe after I finish 活着, I can do a second pass reading it out loud.

Cool!  But if you record yourself and put it online, you'll need to be a bit careful with broadcasting copyrighted content (especially on YouTube).  I specifically chose 《猫城记》 because it's a 90+ year old book, and its author 老舍 died in 1966.  While I'm not a copyright expert, I don't think I'll get in trouble for that (after all, the full text is on Wikisource).  However, 《活着》 is not as old, and its author 余华 is still very much alive.

On 11/6/2025 at 2:08 AM, becky82 said:

But if you record yourself and put it online, you'll need to be a bit careful with broadcasting copyrighted content

Good point, I have to imagine he is not litigious as there are many 活着 audiobooks on Bilibili. Still, it would be something to look out for.

Which, btw, OMG am I ever getting tired of 活着 after sloooowly reading it in free time (still at about 60% done), watching the zhang yimou movie, doing anki flashcards, and watching the 富贵电锯 for the last 6 weeks. That said, I love the story.

I also stumbled upon 猫城记 and saved it years ago... probably a while still before I can read it without great difficulty. I look forward to it!

So, do you manage to reach 500 hours of chinese speaking?