일기 십사 - A journey PS: This is my thought while learning a new language. Not looking for corrections. But do share your thoughts if you agree or disagree. ======================== You can't learn a language in 3 or 6 months. Learning a language is life long journey. For this sake, please don't rush and take it easy. I call myself a native Chinese speaker. I always tell people I know Chinese, yet I don't know Chinese. One of my Japanese friends moved to America. He always tells me he doesn't know English, yet he know English. I don't know Chinese because there are actually 50,000 Chinese words out there but I don't know all of them. My Japanese friend know English because where he lives only has 'English stuff' but lives well, works well and makes American friends well. Language isn't a course. It's a life. What does language mean to you? Someone see it as a tool of communication, so they can talk to people. Someone see it as an requirement of education, so they learn it for an A. Someone see it as a way to earn money, so they work as a translator... I look at language like it's a tool of creation. After learning the language, I can understand. Understanding the people. Understanding the car. Understanding the environment. Understanding the tree. Understanding the policies. Understanding the books. Understanding the culture. Understanding everything. Since I understand, so I can replicate. Not just replicate, but also fuse the 'new' and old things I know to create a new thing. A new environment. A new tree. A new policies. A new book. A new person. A new culture. Someone told me they step into a whole new world after they learn a new language. Yes, I agree with them. I also believe the language will help to create a whole new world.