In English, we often use the word "attempt". Here's 5 random example sentences (off the top of my head):
I'm attempting to learn Chinese.
I attempted to make a joke, but it didn't go well.
I'm attempting to resolve the situation.
He didn't even attempt to explain himself.
She's attempting to convince me that's she's innocent.
"Attempt" is typically translated to 试图 in dictionaries (there's also 企图 but it has negative connotations), so I might say something like this in Chinese:
我正在试图学习中文。
我试图开个玩笑,不过没受欢迎。
我在试图解决不佳的情况。
他连试图解释自己也没有。
她在试图说服我自己是无辜的。
One of my iTalki teachers pointed out that he almost never uses the word 试图 (and how I use it all the time), so I'm guessing all of my sentences above are unnatural (or maybe even plain wrong). So now I'm at a loss for how I should go about constructing Chinese sentences for which I would naturally use the verb "attempt" in English.
Question: How can we construct natural Chinese sentences when their English counterpart contains the verb "attempt"?
To be clear, I'm looking for general guidelines on word choice and grammar which I can use when constructing Chinese sentences where I would use the verb "attempt" in English, not merely "here's better translations to the five above sentences".