After I initially became fluent in French, I had wondered at the possibility of learning a second foreign language. I was relatively competent in Spanish, but I thought of a new conquest. There were many that I wanted to learn; in fact, I can’t think of a single human language that I wouldn’t want to learn. But though I’d thought of learning Chinese, it always seemed too difficult.

The other day on Twitter, someone shared a link to a Kickstarter campaign for Chineasy, the start-up of ShaoLan Hsueh. ShaoLan has designed a beautiful system for mnemonically learning and recalling Chinese characters based on simple, lovely illustrations.

After studying for a few minutes, the idea of learning Chinese seemed feasible. Though it is rated among the hardest of known human languages for difficulty of learning for native English speakers, it seemed within reach. Granted, there is an enormous difference between recognizing a few characters and reading and writing with professional fluency. But whereas I had considered Chinese practically impossible to learn, it suddenly lay within the realm of the possible.

I decided to embark on an experiment. I was going to learn Chinese.

In college, I majored in French literature and minored in linguistics, so I’m intimately familiar with traditional methods of language learning, namely rote memorization of vocabulary and verb conjugations. But I’ve always been curious if there was a way to learn more quickly and more efficiently. Does language acquisition really need to take years of several hour per week study?

I wanted to test the limits of learning in general and language acquisition in particular. Over the next year, I will meticulously track my progress in Chinese. I plan to carefully review the learning strategies and methods I encounter, and plan to make them available here, particularly those that seem relevant to any language.

Join me as I dive into this complex and beautiful language and disprove the impossibility of learning such complicated system of communication.