Road to master Mandarin is filled with both potholes and promise

At this point, I've been learning Chinese for two years now. I can honestly say that, in that time, there is no doubt that my improvement has been significant.

When I arrived in Beijing in 2019, I didn't really know any Chinese, save for a few words that I had memorized from an app on my smartphone. At first, I wasn't overly concerned with this lack of knowledge because I figured I could get by, with technology being what it is these days. In fact, that initial thought still rings true. Some of my fellow foreign colleagues have been here in Beijing for years and still don't know much Mandarin.

However, I soon realized that, for me, learning Chinese is really important. I thought I would encounter more English speakers in Beijing because of its somewhat cosmopolitan nature, but I was wrong. Even with Chinese mobile apps that cater to English speakers (apps that I do indeed make frequent use of ), the fact is, if you don't know Chinese here, life can be unnecessarily complicated.