Today, there were many visitors to the nature center where I

work. I heard one group speaking Mandarin so I asked one of the women “你们是中国人吗?” We had a short conversation where I spoke very bad Chinese and tried to tell her that I have many Chinese friends online that I teach English to. I later realized it was the first time I had spoken Chinese with a stranger in person and that even though I made many mistakes it made me want to study even harder.