Learning how to speak Chinese is at the top of the list for plenty of foreigners who find themselves in China. Just how lofty a goal is that? Pretty lofty, judging by most learners' accounts. In one of our early issues (No. 7, "Culture Hopping," November 2007) we asked three advanced learners of Mandarin about their experiences studying Chinese. Nearly five years later, we caught up with them again to find out about their progress.

Olga, Part 1 (2007)
Olga, 21, from Kursk, Russia, has spent four years in China and is currently pursuing a master's degree in world economics at Sichuan University.

Olga, 21, from Kursk, Russia, has spent four years in China and is currently pursuing a master's degree in world economics at Sichuan University.

What made you interested in studying Chinese?
When I was around 8 years old, I just felt that China attracted me a lot. It seemed to be a very mysterious country with interesting culture and history. It was a challenge to learn this language—I really wanted to understand China and Chinese people.

When did you start studying Chinese and where?
At the time I decided I wanted to study Chinese, there were no Chinese people in my town, nor were there any Chinese textbooks. When I was 10, I went to the Chinese embassy in Moscow and asked where I to find books for studying Chinese. They were really surprised and touched that such a small girl was crazy about China and presented me some materials for learning Chinese. How excited I was! But actually I started really studying only when I came here. After two years I passed the HSK level 8.

What other languages have you studied or are you studying?
English, Japanese, and I just started to learn Tibetan. But I want to learn more languages, maybe in the future.

Does your knowledge of Chinese help you study Japanese?
Of course! Because I'm taught Japanese in Chinese!

Why did you choose to study world economics?
I think it's going to be useful in the future. Whatever I'll be doing, it's good to be familiar with what's going on in the world. Also I want to study more professional Chinese language.

Does the program teach you about dealing with business culture here?
Life in China is the best teacher for this. The longer you live here, the more you deal with people, the deeper you know them. These things come with experience.

What is the most important thing to remember when learning Chinese?
If you are interested and have the wish to learn and to communicate with people, that's enough. Patience and lots of practice, of course, and "xuexi, xuexi, zai xuexi," as great Lenin said!

What was your undergraduate thesis about? How long did it take to write?
The topic was "Relative structural and cultural contrastive analysis of Russian and Chinese proverbs." It was about 20,000 characters. Preparation took a long time. Actually, during all these years I was collecting proverbs from both languages, and I'm still very interested in this cultural and linguistic subject.

What is the content of your courses now?
For the first semester: economics (including some specialized classes), Marxism ("Das Kapital!"), Japanese, business English. But mostly it's based on independent study and research.

How do your classmates and professors react do the presence of a foreigner?
They are friendly and help me all the time. They wonder how I can write the lectures down in Chinese characters almost as fast as they do, mixing it with Russian at the same time. The only mafan thing is it's too obvious if I don't show up to class!

Olga, Part 2 (2012)
Olga (虹韵) is from Kursk, Russia and has spent nine years in China. In her mid-20s, she speaks Mandarin, English, and Japanese and studied Tibetan in addition to her native Russian. She currently works as a news anchor for Hong Kong STV (香港卫视).

How would you describe your current Chinese level compared to your level in 2007?
Of course it's much better now! When I started this job, I realized that I still have a bit of a Sichuanese accent. So I had to learn a lot of things again to make it closer to the required professional news broadcast level.

You earned your bachelor's degree in Chinese from Sichuan University, for which you wrote a 20,000-character thesis on "Relative structural and cultural contrastive analysis of Russian and Chinese proverbs." That sounds tough. Then you completed a master's degree in world economics! What was the most difficult part of that?
My master's thesis was about Sino-Russian energy cooperation, and it was 50,000 characters! That was not easy. What else? Having no heating in the classroom in wintertime was tough!

Which classes were most useful to your career?
International economics, economic cooperation, some theory, and even "Das Kapital!" When you deal with news, everything is useful. At the very beginning I was doing a "Financial Update" show, so it helped me a lot.

Do you think moving to China as a teenager made it relatively easy for you to adapt? Over one-third of your education has been within the Chinese system!
For sure! Sometimes I feel totally Chinese; I tell many people that I grew up in China, and that's true! Now it's easier for me to speak and write Chinese than even Russian. But working in China is another experience.

Speaking of, how did you get your job as an anchor?
I found Hong Kong TV at a job fair in Beijing. CCTV invited me as well, but finally I decided that Hong Kong might be better. There were a few interviews, and afterward they sent us to Zhejiang Media University (in Hangzhou) for intensive training courses in broadcasting for a month.

What is a typical workday for you?
Now we are making an one-hour daily news-magazine show called "截击时事" ("Catch the Point"). It covers world news, reading and analyzing newspapers, Taiwan news (my part), and discussing hot Internet topics. We prepare all the news, materials, topics, newspapers, etc; editing; then make-up. We start our live show at 7:30 p.m.

Do you ever have problems understanding when you're on the air? What do you do then?
TV is team work, and sometimes you have to understand each other without words, especially if it's a live show. Our motto is: even if you make a mistake, don't stop! We have a great team so even if something happens, we can handle it and leave a funny memory for the future.

You went from a "free-spirited" student with hair wraps and hippie clothes to a very conservative work environment. How was that transition in your life, and what are your plans for the future?

I think I didn't change! If you see me wearing a formal suit and telling you about the stock market, it doesn't mean I've lost my "love and peace" spirit. And of course I still hope to make an environmental or traveling show in the future, something meaningful to me. Keep an eye out for that!

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