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Love this one. It’s beautiful, Michelle. I send big hugs to you and Albert’s mom. BTW, I think you’re writing better than I did at ten. And based on some NTU standards, 73 is B and 83 is actually A-.

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Thank you for your beautiful post, Michelle! It gave me all the emotions. 🥹 I lost count of how many times I laughed or felt the pang of recognition in your struggles. If I wrote down all my thoughts this comment would become an essay, so I won't. But I want to yell 加油 (I wish I could capitalize that) as loudly as I can, because intensive classes take so much work, and you're killing it! I took intensive classes at the MTC eight years ago (I was one of the elders in my class at the ripe age of...29), starting from level zero, and I had no other responsibilities besides going to school and studying. After 9 months, my brain was wrung dry. I don't know how I would've survived if I had, say, a child and a mother-in-law to help take care of, as well as a million other projects. In that case, I wouldn't have tried to learn Mandarin at all. ;_; I just want to remind you what an awesome and difficult thing it is you're doing. And thanks so much for sharing your experience! (Also, I wish I could've been in the room when you gave your presentation on Breaking Bad. 😆)

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Apr 29, 2023Liked by Broad and Ample Road, Michelle Kuo

This was such an interesting read! As someone who also recently started taking Mandarin lessons as an adult (though from scratch), I find a lot of the observations on challenges encountered quite relatable. Enjoyed the passage about the teacher's bluntness. It also gives me motivation -- esp. the desk-seat photo! -- to carve out more time for systematic learning and practice. And thank you for sharing with us the vulnerable human connection with your mother-in-law.

Loved your most important lesson (in language learning and in life) on accepting the dignity and intrinsic worth of the place you are at in this moment.

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May 1, 2023Liked by Michelle Kuo

Please don't be dumber in English. Your Engish is wonderful. Way back in the day when I took Chinese (Mandarin) in grad school, one of my classmates wrote characters with the precision of a machine. Even her handwritten notes during class. Her spoken ability was no better than the rest of us. But wow her characters. One day when the teacher was late and we students knew each other well enough, we asked her. She explained that she came a large family. All of her brothers and sisters went to a local Catholic school. She is lefthanded and the nuns insisted that she not write with the devil's hand. However, her mom would have none of this and told the nuns if they would not let her daugher write naturally then she would take all of her kids out of school. In this case as in so many others the devil won the day with cash. But she knew that her her every stroke would be scrutinized. Thus she became a kind of human typewriter. The weird thing about this is that we envied her.

Anyway, in Japanese they say "ganbatte" which translates loosely as "struggle well!"

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Apr 30, 2023Liked by Michelle Kuo

This confirms every anxiety I've ever had about trying to learn Chinese (!) ...and yet this hardcore method + immersion seems like the best way. I feel for the writer/talker in you. I think entering a new language also affects the sense of one's own wit, which is something I'd be sad to lose (or maybe is not as language-bound as I think?) Beautiful weaving of aging, dexterity, reversals, gentleness of care. - Lisa

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Apr 30, 2023Liked by Michelle Kuo

This is beautiful, Michelle 💜

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Apr 30, 2023Liked by Michelle Kuo

I really like your writing. I learned Mandarin and unlearned it many times. Speaking, reading and writing.

I’m old, so I have been through both traditional and simplified characters? Made it harder for me! Also many versions of pinyin starting with Wade-Giles. That’s how old...

Anyway, keep writing. One question: when studying in Taiwan, do the teachers allow one to use simplified characters? Thanks

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