I have completed 5 lessons of elementary Mandarin, with one to go. Once that is complete I will sign up for the very same course again - and will continue to do so until I can master such complicated phrases as, "What are you doing this weekend?", "What is your name?, "Today is Friday" and so on. The course does not include any instruction in writing any of the many thousands of Mandarin characters.

I try to not I mock others' attempts to speak my language. After all, if somebody speaks with an accent or if they have difficulty writing your language then there's a pretty good chance they speak (and write) at least one more language than you do. So I salute them.

stales