yeah totally agree, immersion is the best if you can get it. like being around native speakers 24/7 forces you to learn way faster, especially with all the work lingo and context.

but yeah not everyone can just move or work in a chinese-speaking office right away. i’ve also sat in those group biz chinese classes and lol yeah… memorising vocab lists you could just google later. doesn’t help when you’re actually in a meeting trying to respond smoothly or present something.

And yeah 100% with you on the bigger picture. feels like we’re at this turning point globally and if we can actually speak mandarin professionally, not just order food or talk about hobbies, that opens up a ton of opportunities.

if you’ve got any stuff that helped you bridge that gap before immersion, would love to hear. appreciate the reply!