If you're comparing them to the Manchus at the beginning of the Qing, then they were much more "Chinese" in their way than their ancestors. They spoke primarily in Chinese, wrote primarily in Chinese, accepted Confucianism and many other Chinese customs (religion, funerals, etc.), and came to enjoy the pleasures of life that the Chinese enjoyed. The gradual erosion of the so-called "Manchu Way" actually started much earlier - in the 18th century. In 1724, the Yongzheng emperor sent this missive to the garrison general at Nanjing:

Because for many years they have not gotten even one good general, the Jiangnan soldiers have been spoiled and their customs have very much slid into Chinese ways. Do your best to teach them and put this right. Do you very best to teach them and put this right. No making [them into] good, well-rounded men but [instead] favoring the soldiers because they are Manchu and having them oppress the people, cause trouble in the locale, estranging them from military training, and permitting leisurely time-serving, while being oneself generous and nice are all suitably small ways of thinking.

By that point, many Manchu soldiers stationed in Southern China were said to be poor horsemen and archers, and not a century had passed since the Manchus entered China proper. The following was written by a captain-general named Mantai:

In our nation's olden times there was a blacksmith and a bowyer in every company, and every banner had its own craftsmen to do embossing, carving, silversmithing, saddlemaking, and so on, and not only fletchers. Looking into this further, it seems that because Manchus of yore used arrows that they had made themselves, fletchers came to be unnecessary. Today's Manchu soldiers use arrows they have bought from Chinese craftsmen at markets or temples; they no longer know how to make arrows. It has even gotten so that no one knows how to straighten arrows by filing and polishing them.

There was also a gradual disappearance of Manchu has a spoken language - by the 19th century, very few people could speak Manchu. The loss of the Manchu language was such a problem that in 1734, the Yongzheng emperor ordered that imperial bodyguards and other soldiers in the palace should speak only in Manchu and not in Chinese. This order seemed to have no effect, as in 1750 the Qianlong emperor was still complaining about vanguard soldiers speaking Chinese instead of Manchu. In 1735, it was reported in Hangzhou that only half the Manchu garrison would speak Manchu or at least say a few words.

So in the span of about a century, half of the Manchus had lost the ability to speak Manchu, many could not ride a horse very well, and had become poor archers.* Yet this is not to say that the Manchu identity was lost - the Manchus still wore their traditional dresses and hairstyles (while also forcing everyone else to adopt it), retained the banner system, and continued to value Manchus over Han. Unlike many other nomadic regimes (such as the Xianbei), the Qing never actively encouraged Sinicization, and always sought to retain their own identity. It's worth nothing that Manchu as a language was forgotten because it was not necessary to use it, not because Qing rulers encouraged the bannermen to speak Chinese.

*There were regional variations. The Xi'an garrison, for example, were said to be skilled archers and horsemen, and spoke Manchu very well. This is probably because they were engaged in many frontier campaigns, whereas the southern soldiers were mostly idle.

Source: The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China by Mark Elliot.