One of the important functions of language is communication, and the free use of language to communicate with other people is one of the goals of most Russian language learners. However, Russian thinking and speech habits are harder to guess. Among students from different countries studying in Russia, Chinese students have a relatively low level of conversational speech and the reasons for this phenomenon are diverse. The article discusses the reasons why Chinese students have barriers in communicating in Russian, and suggests ways to improve their conversational skills.