>>13687736I studied Mandarin for 4 years, basically through my entire undergraduate education up until I spent a year in China. I took Mandarin up until 6000 level in a top 10 university and passed the HSK 5. I'm so glad I did because I learned a lot of valuable lessons about working/living in China and it just wasn't for me. I switched degree programs and now get paid to live like a NEET.
I've forgotten a lot of it because I haven't done jack shit with it in about half a decade.
I agree that it's really not feasible to become fluent in Mandarin for most people in such a short time due to all the barriers that slow down the learning process. The amount of rote memorization required and listening practice when you don't speak a tonal language to start with scares lots of people off.
