When Austrian Andreas Laimbock, 33, came to China in 2002 to learn Putonghua, he ran into a wall of discouraging obstacles. But the hardship proved inspirational, and four years ago he set up the LTL Mandarin School in Beijing to help foreigners master what can at times seem like 'a language from a different planet'. This year, he started the University Pathway programme to help foreign students learn enough Chinese to earn university degrees on the mainland.
What first brought you to China?
I first came to China on a one-year exchange programme with City University of Hong Kong in 1999. At the time, I didn't have any special interest in China or indeed Asia. I was 20 and studying in England.
While the year in Hong Kong was fun and exciting, I pretty much lived an expatriate life, and in the end I felt unsatisfied. I wanted to learn Cantonese during that year, but the university didn't offer a Cantonese course. They offered Mandarin, but they were teaching it in Cantonese. Because I didn't speak the language, I felt hidden from a world I couldn't explore, one which my classmates would not bring me to, because even though they spoke English, they did not want to speak it after class.
I returned to Europe, graduated in finance and worked for a bank in Germany. But after three months I realised that was not what I wanted to do. One rainy day, sitting in my office in Frankfurt, I decided I had to make a radical move. So, to the slight shock of my parents, I quit my job and came back to China.
What was your Mandarin-learning experience like?