Charlie was an experienced language learner. He knew good listening skills were the key to speaking clearly in language learning. Since Jack asked for advice on learning Chinese one year ago, Charlie continued telling Jack that it would take a lot of time and patience to immerse oneself in Chinese. However, Jack often complained how difficult Chinese pronunciation was, because he did not spend much time practicing every day.

One day, Jack grumbled again about his unclear Chinese pronunciation. He asked Charlie, “What was your trick to speaking Chinese clearly when you were one or two years old?” Charlie was amused by the question and wondered why Jack kept looking for the tip that he had been reminding him of. He was always between tears and laughter when hearing Jack’s unrealistic goal, to sound like native speakers.

The more Charlie learned languages, the more he understood that it was truly challenging to sound like native speakers. He had given up being perfect but still repetitiously practiced to make progress. On the contrary, Jack was too ambitious without taking concrete actions. It seems that people who learn more tend to be more modest during the learning process.