Friday mailbag. Mandarin and English. Real listener questions.

We start with a chat about long-term goals. Safety, peace, fun, love and connection. Where we want the kids to be in ten years. Where we want to live. How to build something bigger than “exercise more”.

Then the mailbag.

A night-shift worker in Leeds knows the vocab but freezes when building sentences.

A Birmingham listener orders bubble tea in Taichung without the cashier switching to English.

A software engineer in Dublin wants real conversations, not grammar workshops.

A listener in Seattle can hear J, Q and X but cannot say them.

A teacher in Wellington reads well but loses everything without subtitles.

We talk about progress, language habits, relationships, pronunciation, listening skills and how to keep going even when it feels slow.

Send your stories or questions to [email protected].

For lessons or hangouts, visit mandarinmonkey.com.

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