Sean and Angela met in Japan at a local Japanese language school and got to know each other as classmates speaking only Japanese with each other up until recording this podcast episode together.

Sean Hsieh was born and raised in Taiwan through age 13 when he moved to Singapore to attend an American-style international school. He took an extreme approach to this big life shift by deciding to cut off Chinese altogether and fully immerse himself in English for those 3 years, even if he couldn't speak it at all when he first got there. Thanks to that all-in mindset, he now speaks fluent American-style English. But looking back he regrets not prioritizing also improving his Mandarin, as he now feels subpar in that respect.

Since so many of us are American-born Mandarin speakers, it was interesting to hear Sean's description of his Mandarin level as "not very good" since compared to many of us ABCs/ABTs, his vocabulary range is much wider than what we grew up with, he knows all the Chinese characters, and grew up in the culture/society through his early formidable years. It just goes to show how relative and personal each person's language journey is!

In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 觀點 / 观点 / guān diǎn ("point of view" / "opinion"), 極端 / 极端 / jí duān ("extreme"), 打從心底 / 打从心底 / dǎ cóng xīn dǐ ("from the bottom of one's heart" / "genuinely" / "sincerely"), and more.

Go deeper with your learning from the podcast by joining our Podcast Transcript Membership, which includes full episode transcripts in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Pinyin, and English, with vocab highlighted. Download the first episode's full transcript for free to check out the format before joining: https://www.realyoumandarin.com/podcast

And if you like improving your Mandarin through this conversational style format, check out our course Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression taught through video-lessons of realistic dialogues teaching you real life vocabulary to navigate some of life's toughest challenges, including expressing your emotions, interpersonal relationships, fertility & parenting, caring for aging parents, and self-growth. Try a free lesson and learn more at https://www.realyoumandarin.com

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