Thoughts on Learning Chinese

Yes, I speak, write, and understand Chinese. On one hand—it sounds impressive. On the other—why bother, really?

The Practical Truth

For the most part, Chinese turned out to be useful more for personal development (and for talking with my wife—obviously :)). Is it frustrating that the language is barely needed at work? I think so. Though when it was needed, Chinese corporate culture always came as a bonus… I should probably write about that separately sometime.

How It Started

I never actually planned to learn Chinese—it just happened. Languages generally came easily to me, but with Chinese, necessity forced my hand. When I arrived for my master’s at my first Chinese university, I quickly realized: nobody really planned to teach international students properly.

The university, which trained personnel for the defense and space industries, turned out to be a mediocre place for foreigners. Most were satisfied with this arrangement, but for me, it was a major disappointment.

The Turning Point

So I decided to move to a more open environment and study alongside Chinese students in their programs. The catch—I needed to pass language exams quickly. That’s how I entered the hell known as “drill Chinese characters for the test.”

To everyone’s surprise, it worked out successfully: I ended up in the computer science department at Tsinghua University, in a lab working on some unclear thing at the time called deep learning…

The Irony

What started as necessity became one of my most valuable skills. The language that began as a requirement became a window into understanding Chinese culture, thinking, and ultimately, my career in China’s tech industry.

Sometimes the things we never plan teach us the most.