[AlchemistCamp]

I had yet another experience. Before Chrome existed, I learned thousands of words by hearing them before I could read them.

A lot of the pain I see in foreigners learning Chinese is that they try to tackle the written language too early. Actually, I think that's sub-optimal in any language, but it's even more expensive in a language like Chinese or Thai where word segmentation isn't a part of the writing system. I totally get it since characters are cool and curiosity about them draws many learners to the language, but it's a lot easier to take on one challenge at a time!