To answer your question:

I would rather like to be able to speak it, than to know exactly how the grammar works, but I start things, I want to do them right. If I don’t know the grammar, I have no chance to do it 100% right (ok, I probably will never do something really 100% right, but it’s nice to know that I could )

I L O V E your Podcasts,, I’m listening to one each day, so I can better learn what you teach
It’s verry good that you repeat so often (really!), I don’t understand why not every language teacher does so.

I hope you make more podcasts!

Bye, Michaela!

http://www.learnchinesepod.com/chinesepodpdf/learnchinesepod-beginner-04.pdf

Would you like to be a linguist who knows perfectly how a language(s) works but can’t speak it or rather someone who doesn’t know as much about grammar but speak perfectly the language?

I expect a linguist to know full well how a language works regardless of whether he can speak it perfectly. Being able to speak the language perfectly would only make the person a better linguist.

A person that speaks a language well, but doesn’t know why defines your typical person. Most people that speak just English (or Chinese) generally do it quite well, but don’t know the intricate details of language’s grammar. Ask them why they say something a certain way and you’re likely to get the answer, “I don’t know. It just sounds right to me.”