I can't say I've given up on learning Mandarin but I certainly have lost my sense of direction over the past 3 months or so. It's all I can do to keep up on work, a little social life, some triathlon training, etc.
However I love reading stories about the language like the one in the June 23rd issue of China Daily titled "Moving beyond the basics of Chinese into deep waters." The story was written by a foreigner living in Beijing. There were two great parts. One was where he translated a venture capital panel on some high tech products. Over and over he introduced one of the speakers incorrectly simply because of the tone or inflection of the words. Instead of his name, Ye, followed by Zong which means head or chief he used the wrong tong and essentially called this leader "Chief Love Child!" Thankfully Ye Zong was a good sport.
Another time after this foreigner passed what he described as the HSK Level 3 exam (Chinese Language Proficiency exam) he joyfully announced to his colleagues that he officially passed the level 3 exam. The audience full of his colleagues was silent for a long time. After which they all burst out into hysterical laughter. Apparently he had instead announced: "I am an X-rated adult movie star." Whoops!
The intricacies of the language certainly are challenging but I have no clue how a proficiency exam and an x-rated movie star could even be close to one another.
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