It has been quite a while since my last post. The past few months unfolded quickly — exams for an accountancy certification, long evenings of studying, workplace projects, a promotion, a new team. Life did not stop. It accelerated.
Somewhere in that acceleration, I pressed pause on Mandarin lessons. What started as “just for a while” quietly stretched into months.
Twice a week now, I am back on Preply.
I was nervous before the first lesson. I hadn’t spoken Mandarin regularly in some time, and I wondered if the words would still come. Would my sentences fall apart halfway through? Would my tones betray me?
They didn’t.
Yes, I was a little rusty. But I was still comfortable speaking. The language hadn’t disappeared — it had simply been waiting. Reading aloud on DuChinese during the break turned out to be more important than I had realized. It kept my pronunciation alive. It kept the door slightly open.
And now that I’ve stepped back in, I feel grateful.
Grateful that progress is not always lost when we pause.
Grateful that some things stay with us.
Grateful that I can begin again.