Note: since joining the site, I've had many nice people writing me very polite messages asking to become language exchange partners. I would love to reply to you all and tell you that I can do language exchange with you, but right now my time is limited and is best spent with professional teachers. This is because I'm not conversational yet - when I am, I'll be open to speak with anyone. :) Hi! I'm James, a 23 year old software engineer living in Cambridge in the UK. I want to learn Mandarin for a number of reasons. Since making some Chinese friends, I've grown a desire to delve deeper into Chinese culture. Most people in the Western world are so sheltered from the amazingly rich culture and history on the other side of the world. I've barely scratched the surface. I don't want to limit myself to one part of this planet - I want to experience something different to the country I've been stuck in for so long. I also think there are potential business benefits to learning Mandarin. But my main reason for learning the language is because my goal this year is to be fluent enough to travel to China without a guide to hold my hand everywhere. I don't need to be amazing, but good enough to survive on my own. I'm looking for both professional tuition and, later on, language exchange friends when I'm actually capable of holding any kind of conversation. I currently only know a few words and still find distinguishing tones virtually impossible when listening to native speakers.