学汉语,我一败涂地

ON FAILING TO MASTER CHINESE

我估计所有到中国来生活和工作的老外肯定都有学汉语的念头，因为我们都会梦想有那么一天能够用很流利的汉语与13亿中国人进行自如的交流。并像重新见到了失败多年的兄弟姐妹一样被中国人接纳。

I suppose everyone who comes to live and work in China has a notion to learn the language. We all have this vision of ourselves chatting fluently to 1.3 billion Chinese and being accepted among them like a long-lost brother or sister. Some of us have a background of language learning which gives us the confidence to imagine that we will be able to add Putonghua to our repertoire in a matter of weeks if not days. So where did I go wrong？