Mandarin Please

你好！The last two years I have been studying Mandarin with professor Wei. I’m not sure why I chose Mandarin but I’m glad I did. When you tell most people that you have been studying Mandarin for two years they seem so impressed and think you should be fluent, not so much. For Mandarin not only do you have to learn the language but you have to be able to read the characters. There are endless combinations of characters that mean several different things and can become quite confusing. Even after two years of Mandarin I can’t carry on a conversation for very long. Since I’m not immersed in the language at school and we learn from a textbook, I can read Mandarin better than I can speak it. The tones always get me. I hope the trip will allow me to better my Chinese speaking skills and hopefully pick up new vocab as well. I’m sometimes afraid to speak to someone that is Chinese because I’m afraid I will miss pronounce and they won’t have a clue what I’m talking about. I would probably be better off writing the characters and communicating that way but I need to practice my speaking. We’ll see how it goes. 再见！I promise I know more than hello and goodbye!