Many of us were raised to believe that success in our careers is the most important thing we can strive for in our lives, so we chug along climbing that corporate ladder without a second thought. Then suddenly for many of us, we hit a quarter life crisis and we're struck with the thought, "Wait, am I really happy right now? Is this what I want to be doing with my life?"

Our guest this time is Tong, one of Angela's former coworkers from her time working in tech. We talk about Tong's decision to take a two year sabbatical and immerse herself in nature, hiking and backpacking throughout Tibet, Yunnan, and Patagonia. By taking a complete break from the goal-seeking mindset she was raised on, Tong finally had the chance to slow down and think through what really matters to her and what direction she wants to take her life moving forward.

In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 走出職場 / 走出职场 / zǒu chū zhí chǎng ("to leave the workplace/to exit corporate life"), 空窗期 / 空窗期 / kōng chuāng qī ("gap year/period" / "sabbatical"), 人生課題 / 人生课题 / rén shēng kè tí ("personal challenges / life lessons (i.e., in self-growth)"), and more.

Tong is still setting up her Substack, but if interested you can connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tongzhang1/

The final module of our Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression course is dedicated to the topic of Self-Growth. If you're interested in equipping yourself with the tools to talk about this topic with your loved ones in Mandarin, check out the topics covered and consider joining the course. And if you haven't already, try a free lesson now at ⁠https://www.realyoumandarin.com!

P.S. If you want to go deeper with your Mandarin learning, you can unlock full episode transcripts with Traditional Chinese / Simplified Chinese / Pinyin / English, with vocab highlighted, by joining our Podcast Transcript Membership. To download the full first episode's transcript for free, head over to: https://transcripts.realyoumandarin.com/free-lesson-emails

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