| Do realize that picking up another language is harder for some people. I'm one of those. I lived with a Shanghainese woman in the US for six years and the only Chinese phrase that I could make stick in my head was "Wah I Knee" ("I love you" in Chinese). Now if you only could get one Chinese phrase to stick, that is probably the best. ;-) However, it wasn't from lack of trying to learn other Chinese words and phrases. Just an aptitude thing. Years before I took the Johnson O'Connors Aptitude Test (http://www.jocrf.org/) in Chicago and found out that I just have a very low aptitude for acquiring new languages. I'm in the top 1% for deductive and inductive reasoning, but in the bottom 5% for language acquisition. So please keep this in mind when you encounter foreigners that don't speak the local language. It might not because of indifference or lack of trying. It might just be really difficult for them to do so. |