I’ve been learning Chinese for about 6 months now. The key to learning a language IMO is that you need motivation (ie. a reason to want to learn), and something that immerses you in the language. For me it’s because I started dating a Chinese girl. I learn her language to help ease the communication between us, and to learn more about her culture.

Funnily enough, it started out as me doing the first few Duolingo lessons in secret to impress her between our first and second dates. But as our dates kept going well, I kept doing the lessons in my spare time. I didn’t originally set out to reach a point where I can have a full conversation with her over texting in Chinese, but that’s where we are now. Although to be clear I have to look up the stuff she says to me in my dictionary a lot. But then I can usually respond without needing to translate anything other than maybe some content words. The other day, I actually caught a typo she made and corrected her, which made us both laugh.