Travel provided many interesting experiences, but perhaps the most useful lesson I learned was that I really had no proficiency for learning the thousands of characters of the written Chinese language.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Travel teaches as much as books.
I wanted to do something far from my intellectual and physical home, so I went to live in Beijing for eight months and took Mandarin Chinese.
Once I became interested in China, I flew to Beijing in 1996 to spend half a year studying Mandarin. The city stunned me.
I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.
I've done a reasonable amount of travelling, which I enjoyed, but not for too long at a time.
I wanted to learn a few foreign languages, and therefore I had to go abroad.
As it was, I realized choosing the study of Chinese literature as my life's work was probably a mistake.
I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education.
I was very adept at acquiring languages.
I don't like to travel. Yet all my books seem to involve a journey.