Junxi, did you watch Song Joong-ki’s fan meeting in Beijing? He spoke in Chinese and even read a poem. As a Chinese teacher, I was truly surprised.

I did! He originally wanted to say, “Tomorrow I’m going to eat zhajiangmian,” but it came out as “I want to eat... tomorrow...” Still, I think that was already really impressive.

Exactly. Being able to form sentences on your own is not easy at all. Many students only dare to speak after studying for half a year. He started by learning pinyin, initials, and finals.

I also find retroflex sounds really hard. I can never pronounce words like “chuxian” and “zhishi” clearly. But when he sang, his pronunciation was very accurate. He sounded like a Chinese person.

Chinese has four tones: the first tone is high and level, the second rises, the third falls then rises, and the fourth falls sharply. Different tones mean different things, and that’s very hard for foreigners.

No wonder he said, “Chinese is so hard.” But he still worked hard at it and even read a poem on stage. I think that was very cultured.

Yes. Starting from the basics is tiring, but that’s the only way to truly understand a language. Language is not just sentences; it is also culture.

Teacher, I also want to study seriously like him in the future. Maybe one day I’ll be able to become a beauty blogger in China using Chinese. I believe hard work really can change the future.