Hi Daniel,
I joined Mandarin class since January and ongoing until now. My understanding and knowledge improved a lot! And now I started to write which allows me to recognize a lot of Chinese characters. It is simply amazing whereby my language skills in Mandarin improved greatly whereby my Chinese friends are actually impressed with the improvement I made to the point they are actually scared of me because I understand what they are saying despite being Malay and just started learning Mandarin early this year. Made my journey to Hong Kong and nearby China borders there, even though they speak Cantonese but they are still able to guess what I wanted in Mandarin so I feel relieved a lot.