What It's Like Learning a Language at 30

This time, I decided not to simply write this post in English. I wanted to try writing it directly in Chinese and see what I could actually do.

三十歲開始學中文 一 I started learning Chinese at 30

三十歲學一個語言，感覺真的不太一樣。有工作，有很多事情要做，也沒有以前那麼多時間可以花在學習上。但是，我還是決定開始學中文。

Learning a new language at 30 feels different. You have work, a lot of other things to do, and don't have as much time to spend studying as I used to. But I still decided to start learning Chinese.

比我想像中更慢 一 Slower than I imagined

剛開始學的時候，我希望自己可以很快記住所有東西。但，我常常學會一個單字，過幾天又忘記了。有時候昨天還認得的單字，今天看到又想不起來是什麼意思，所以有時候會覺得自己好像沒有進步。

When I first started, I wanted to remember everything quickly. Instead, I kept forgetting words I'd already learned. Sometimes I'd recognize a character day before, when I saw it again the next day, I couldn't remember what it meant. So sometimes I felt like I wasn't making any progress.

跟朋友聊天 一 Chatting with friends

有一天，我跟一個新加坡的朋友聊天。我們本來只是普通的聊天，但我決定用中文跟她聊天，而不是一直用英文。當然，我的中文沒有那麼好，有些句子我需要想很久才敢傳出去，有時候忘記一個單字，只好先查一下，有時候我也不知道自己寫的句子聽起來自不自然。我的朋友看得懂。而且我也開始可以看懂她說的一些東西。那個時候，我突然發現原來我真的可以用中文跟別人溝通。

One day, I was chatting with a Singapore friend. We were just having a casual conversation, but I decided to use Chinese instead of always using English. Of course, my Chinese isn't that good. Sometimes I had to think for a long time before dare to send it out, sometimes I forgot, had to look up a word, or wonder whether what I wrote sounded natural. My friend understood me. And I could understand some of what they were saying too. That's when I realized I can actually communicate with someone in Chinese.

再一次當初學者 一 Become a beginner again

學中文讓我重新習慣當一個初學者。有些漢字看起來很像，但是意思完全不一樣。有些單字我一個一個都看得懂，但放在一起，我卻不知道整句話是什麼意思。偶爾，我會突然看懂一句話，而且不用先翻譯成英文或印尼文。那種感覺真的很好

Learning Chinese has taught me what it's like to be a beginner again. Some characters look very similar, but have completely different meanings. Sometimes I understand each word individually, but when they're put together I don't know the whole sentence means. Occasionally, I suddenly understand a sentence without translate into English or Indonesian first. That feeling is really good.

三十歲還不算晚 一 It's not too late at 30

有時候會想，如果我早一點開始學中文，是不是會比較容易？也許吧。但我現在想這些沒有那麼用。我現在開始了就夠了。我還在學中文，也還是會忘記單字，也還是會犯錯。但是每一次我看懂以前看不懂的東西，我都會覺得自己有進步。學中文很難。有時候也很挫折，但是也很好玩。而且我很高興自己開始了。

Sometimes I wonder if learning Chinese would have been easier if I had started earlier, maybe it would have been. But there's no point thing about it now. I started, that's enough. I'm still learning Chinese, still forget words and make mistakes. But whenever I understand something that I couldn't understand before, I know I'm making progress. Learning Chinese is slow. Sometimes frustrating, but also fun. I'm glad I started.