Worried/Existential Issues

Life is like a box of chocolates. Take the ones you like and leave the rest for someone else. :smiley:

As for chinese litirature goes, Iā€™ve found many high quality comics. And when you donā€™t know whatā€™s going on, you can look at the pictures.

If I had more time Iā€™d answer that meaning of life question thing, maybe tomorrowā€¦

I think learning chinese is very much like cooking on a slow burner.
You have to go at it by learning the sounds and speaking first. Then you can go back and get into the reading and writing part. Once you start picking out signs and the stuff around you itā€™s gives you a good feeling. You donā€™t have to be fluent, just be able to improve your quality of life.
I was reading a posting by another poster here (ironlady??) that Chinese is estimated to take five times the time a european language would to learn to read and write and two times the time to speak it.

Your not the only one who feels depressed this time of year, working on christmas day, AGAIN, a long way from pretty much anywhere. Itā€™s not easy if you come from a country where christmas is a big thing and your family and friends will be home. They should probably hand out prozac to foreigners over the christmas period.