Anonymous Poster

Dear Anonymous,

You have a point. I spend entirely too much time looking around and not enough time getting down to business. Honestly, I hate to study. I'm an immersion guy. Force me into the situation and I'm all over it. That's what I do at work. I support specialized software for Dentists. I knew nothing about it, I got some training, and now I can support it effectively. I "get" it. When I started the job, I couldn't have been more intimidated. I was ready to quit, thinking I had gotten way over my head. But I had to have a job and the pay was pretty damn good compared to what I was getting. I just told myself I would get through it.

If it was something I was doing for personal enrichment I would still be at the beginning stages. Even if it was something I enjoyed. Just laziness I suppose. Passivity. Which is why I believe the suggestions I had gotten about going to China, even for a short amount of time, would be very helpful. Unfortunately that's not feasible right now. And on a side note neither is adopting. With China's new regulations we have to wait a few years which has been quite a blow to my wife and I.

I say all that to say that I have decided to stop looking around for the "perfect" materials. I found a link to the Foreign Service Institutes language course in MP3 for the right price.
It's just my speed, it doesn't pretend to be everything (no characters, focus on speaking and comprehension) which will also encourage my mind to wander just enough to keep it interesting. I can practice reading and writing 汉字 hanzi in those spare moments.

I still have the class too. It looked like it was coming to an end. I asked the owner of the language institute if we were going to continue and he asked the other class members. I was very happy to discover they also wanted to continue. There is a core group of three (including myself) and a few others who come when they can. Having the class to attend each week provides a good deal of motivation (as does the $350 clams I have to pay every 10 weeks!).

So anonymous, I'm going to take your advice and buckle down for a little bit. I won't be filling out mountains of paperwork like I thought I would be so I'll have more time than I anticipated.

Again, to all those who have commented I just want to say 谢谢 for the encouragement.