One Thousand Blood Sweat Words
Disclaimer: This entry is my first entry written in Chinese. The English translation is kinda awkward and contrived, akin to a second-language English speaker. It’s because I wrote the entry in Chinese first, then translated it back to English. I purposefully did so to show non-Chinese speakers the level of my Chinese. And yes, that means my Chinese is awkward and unnatural. But you know, effort must count for something! 
Chinese
大多数的人每天都在拼命地赚血汗钱，我这三天来在拼命地写一千两百的血汗字。我学汉语才学了三年， 认的汉字也不多 － 最多有3000吧。对我来说，写文章是一个非常痛苦的事。英语的文章就够痛苦了，现在还要写中文的文章。真是很麻烦。每个句子都要用到没学过的字。即使我现在在抱怨，但我很高兴在三年来能写出那么长那么复杂的文章。三年前，我只能认“陈爱薇”这三个字 。别的字一个也认不出，甚至于“名字”这两个字也不认识。现在，写了1200字的文章给我一个成就感。虽然认识的字比中国人还少，口音还想老外那样，这1200的血汗字表示我这三年来的痛苦，这三年来的承诺。由于这1200的血汗字，我会继续学汉语…直到能流利地讲，写，听，读汉语的那一天。
English Translation
While most people spend their lives toiling over blood-sweat (hard-earned) money, I spent these three days slogging over 1,200 blood-sweat Chinese words. I’ve only learned Chinese for three years; I still can’t read much Chinese – probably only about a maximum of 3000 words.
Writing essays have always been a pain to me. It’s already quite the pain to write essays in English, now I have to write an essay in Chinese. Jeez. I have to check the dictionary every sentence because there are so many words that I haven’t learned. Although I’m complaining right now, I’m actually quite happy that I managed to write such a long and complex paper.
Three years ago, I was only able to write three words: Chen Ai Wei (my Chinese name). I couldn’t read any other words; not even the word “name”! So writing a 1,200-word essay today has left me with a feeling of accomplishment. And although I still don’t read as many words as mainland Chinese and my accent still sounds like a white man speaking Chinese, this 1,200 blood-sweat words symbolizes my three years of pain and effort.
So with this 1,200 blood-sweat words, I will continue to learn Chinese…until the day I can speak, write, understand and read Chinese fluently.
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Omg how do you do it? Chinese is the most complicated language ever.. I failed gr. 2 Chinese school!!
Anyway, I have a HUGE arse too!! I find Rock and Republics make your bum look reallyyy nice because it doesn’t let it sag. LOL. Beyonce’s line of jeans are also made for women with a bigger booty!
hahaha cool!!
though i gave up reading halfway because just looking at chinese characters give me a headache! and i read chinese slower than i read korean, so…. >.<
good effort though! ^^
Pretty impressive for 3 years! My parents forced me to go to Chinese School until I was in 6th grade, I was one year from graduating too. I can speak pretty fluently since my grandparents and a lot of my uncles and aunts only speak Chinese, I can’t read or write as well as I speak though.
Hey Ivy, that’s some really amazing progress you’ve made in a mere three years! Chinese is indeed one of the harder languages to learn, to read and *gasp* to write (especially when it comes to the strokes of each letter, there are so many rules to follow!)… I applaud your effort to learn it! I know foreign friends who’ve taken Chinese language courses and given up halfway through because it was way too taxing and tiring.
And learning how to compose a paragraph in Chinese is no easy job either! Seriously, you have the talent Ivy
I just realised that your Chinese name is the exact translation of “Ivy” 
I have a friend called Maple Soo, and her chinese name is “mei bao”.
There are about 5000~6000 chinese characters, learning how to write 3000 of them is awesome! Anyway I bet more than half of the words are not regularly used.
Keep it up!!!
I’m impressed. From what I hear Chinese is a very complicated language to learn and master. You’re on the right track, congrats for making it this far with your essay!
Hey, do Korean next time… heh.
Wow, that is awesome. I can’t read much of Vietnamese either, and I can’t even write in it! So you’re better than me! Lucky you! I’d love to learn how to read and write in Vietnamese, but I don’t know when that’d happen…
I think the only one I got was the full stop. HAHAHA!
Apparently I didn’t learn shit when I had Chinese tutoring for two months.
太厉害了！
学了三年就这么好了！！！
我学了两年法文还是小学水平。。～
好崇拜你～
很棒啊！
三年下来就能写得这么流利通畅，嗯!要加油！
学英语15年了还停留在只能看有时写，说话不灵光的地步，真是汗颜|||（但愿汗颜这个词你了解）
Very nice, keep it up, =) It’s great to see another person who manage to learn and know how to speak/write chinese. =)
Jia You! =p
Sounds like you’ve done great job learning Chinese. Isn’t it even one of the hardest languages to learn? Or so I have heard.
Wow… definitely a great achievement… normally someone would have given up before a year’s end already. Good for you!!
I greatly want to learn chinese as well, but I’m glad I still know how to read and write in vietnamese.
Wow, it’s truly amazing! 祝贺你！
No wrong character, no grammar mistakes, I really really wish I could be at same level as you write in Chinese. So many non-Chinese speakers/learners give it up finally on this loooong journey.
BRAVO!!!!!
This makes me want to actually go an learn French so that I don’t look silly when my family is around me. They speak English most of the time, but I want to know the secrets they say in French! *wink wink* But you’re such an inspiration. And this really is an accomplishment, Congratulations!! If I was your Chinese Instructor I would give you full points for being equally awesome and hard working!
that is bloody amazing >_<
Dear Ivy,
to show you how much we appreciate all you’ve done for us so far, and how happy we are to host a site of the quality Nanyate has, I have prepared for you a little surprise – I hope you will enjoy it.
Mig
good job! keep it up!
it’s easy to be disheartened when tackling new challenges. but keep practicing, and you’ll be a master before you know it!!
哇, 我羨慕你… 加油!
that’s pretty good. I have also learned Chinese for three years. What a coincidence that we have the same names! My Chinese name is Wáng ài weí but the Wei is the one meaning health
@Ivy Wang: Cool! My mum’s maiden name is actually Wang too. Hahaha.
Hahaha this paragraph was nothing. Took me 20 mins or so. It was the essay I had to write for class that was a bitch. It was on morality and economics.
There are 56,000 Chinese characters actually. Most mainland Chinese who have gone to university can read around 6,000-11,000 characters. The rest can read around 5,000. So I still got a few thousand to go hahahahaha!
Woah I never knew there are so many characters! I think the number 5000 refers to commonly used ones, hehe
anyway I’m losing touch with Chinese, I can’t believe it. I’ve stopped writing Chinese after getting into college (since Chinese Language is no longer a compulsory subject), and now I have to pause when I read Chinese articles, I find myself getting stuck somewhere between the lines, lol!
not that level yet! all i will be able to write is: dak gal bee ju se yo! HAHAAHAHAHA!!
That’s really good of your parents. My mum did try to force me to learn Chinese as a child but I always gave her tons of excuses coz I just hated the language so much. HAHAHA.
Unfortunately, I’m not as good as the rest of the class who have had a much longer history than I with the Chinese language. French is another challenging language to learn. I learned it for around 7 years. I’ve achieved some sort of a passive billingualism with French, where I can read and understand very well but can’t say a word. It’s a shame.
But the best thing about these hard languages is the reward you get from all the toil and trouble. After learning French for 3 years, I was almost gonna give up. But I hung on until I graduated from high school and in my 12th grade French class we got to read Madame Bovary in French. Finishing the book was like a reward for me.