About learning Chinese characters
Teaching Chinese characters is outside the scope of this podcast, but if you are learning Chinese characters through another course or method, you can use the transcript below to follow along.

Learning characters can be a fulfilling project, and can help you to remember and differentiate similar-sounding words. And, of course, it opens up more avenues for practicing your Mandarin, such as reading (books, children's books, comic books) and corresponding with Chinese speakers via email and other messaging apps. I highly encourage you to give it a try!

However, if the thought of memorizing all those characters now gives you a headache, rest assured: you can start speaking Mandarin without being able to read or write. Millions of preliterate children speak Mandarin fluently, and so can you! If and when you are ready to start learning the characters, already speaking some Mandarin will make it that much easier. 

The bottom line is this: Don't let anything stop you or discourage you. The best method is the method you actually use, and any method you choose is better than no method at all! Find a way to move forward. You can always make adjustments later. 

Dialogue transcript:

• M：你好
• L：你好
• M：你好嗎？
• L：我嗎？
• M：對啊，你啊
• L：我還好
• M：怎麼了？
• L：我有一點累
• M：我也有一點累
• L：你也累了？
• M：對啊，我也累了
• L：我們都累了
• M：對啊，好像今天大家都累了

Thanks for listening! 
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