Learning Chinese helps me become the person I want to be.

I asked my friend and fellow Chinese learner, Jered, why he started learning Chinese and this was his response:

“Learning Chinese gave me hope when everything else in my life was not going well.”

I resonated deeply with that.

In 2019 I was overworked and burnt out but learning Chinese became my respite from that. My passion for learning Chinese gave me hope that things would get better.

It’s this passion that gave me the courage to quit my job and buy a one-way ticket to Taiwan to learn Chinese, speak with the locals, make lifelong friends, and become the person I want to be (I’m still here nearly 5 years later).

This may seem like a drastic decision, but I was actually thinking about it for a long time.

I didn’t start with the big changes. I started with the small actions I could control every day.

Study a little bit every day.

Learn one word a day.

Listen every day.

Focus on interesting content.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

I love this quote by James Clear from the book Atomic Habits.

I think about it when I learn Chinese.

Learning Chinese brings me closer to the person I want to be every day, whether it’s learning for 1 hour a day or 10 minutes a day.

I want to be the type of person who learns Chinese. I want to be the type of person who speaks Chinese.

Every day I achieve this is a daily affirmation that I’m on the right path. It motivates me to keep going.

加油，

Danyo

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PS

If you want to also be the type of person who speaks Chinese, I can help you in the Chinese Speakers community.

Reply “speak" and I'll send it over.

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