Why I'm Doing This

Sometimes people ask me, Gene, why are you so committed to learning Chinese to such a high level? Why are you setting such intense and aggressive fluency goals for yourself?

To understand this, you have to know a little bit of my background.

I am a Chinese adoptee, born in Wuhan China, and adopted to my family in America in 1993. I was 18 months old. Growing up, I didn't learn Chinese.

In 2024, I returned to China for the first time since being adopted. During that 3 week trip, I followed my friend around and when I was meeting her family, all I could say was hello (你好), thank you (谢谢), I'm hungry (我饿了), I'm full (我吃饱了).

When I landed back in America, something strange happened. I suddenly had a moment of clarity. I need to learn Mandarin. I need to be able to return whenever I want, on my own terms. I don't want to have to wait until the next time a friend invited me.

So I went to China and then Taiwan and became conversationally fluent.

Now, I'm back. And people continue to ask me, Gene, but why are you so focused on reaching full fluency 1 year from now?

Honestly, I have heard too many friends tell me they've been learning Chinese for a long time, and that their Chinese has gone up and down up and down for years, for some people many many years. That terrifies me.

I have people in my life that I love dearly, people who I am beginning to have relationships with in Mandarin Chinese. I am moving towards fluency so I can deepen my relationships with them.

So why am I doing all this?

I'm doing it for love. Love for the language and relationships that I've lost, found, and am recreating anew.

Follow Along

I'll email when something interesting happens.

Why RushMandarin?

Well my last name is Rush. So...yeah. The funny bit is that some people love puns, and I don't happen to be that kind of person haha. Anyways, don't feel like you have to Rush to learn Mandarin as fast as humanly possible. That's just my own course I've set for myself. You do you. Just do you with better tools : )