Here We Go: Chinese Lesson 1

When I took French in high school I actually managed to forget words at a rate faster than my ability to learn new words. As result, I graduated with zero French vocabulary. Being (made) aware of this talent doesn't exactly give me the confidence I need to learn a new language - let alone Mandarin and it's 6500 characters. Still, if I want to grasp the essence of Chinese soul, I have no choice but to master the language. So here we go! Chinese Lesson 1:

Very well, that should cover the basics. Now, most ordinary people would stop here. But I want to go further - dig deeper. If I really want to understand the Chinese and their culture, then I have to look at the world from a Chinese perspective. So how do the Chinese do it? How do they learn English? Well, let's have a look at the following video:

This video clearly demonstrates intimate knowledge of Western media and culture, brilliantly disguised as a language course. They know our strengths, our weaknesses, our values, and they seem very capable at turning this to their advantage. Very revealing indeed, and food for thought for the next part of my journey...