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Most people, including the Chinese themselves, would agree that the Chinese language is one of the most difficult in the world.
The writing system, which is not a phonetic one, could be daunting for any beginner, not to mention the language's tonal feature, which means that words differ in meaning based on tone as well as pronunciation.
Therefore, when Kara Babb from the United States decided to learn Chinese in her second year in university, feedbacks from people around her were not that supportive.
Babb says she survived the seemingly formidable learning process, and the hard work she had put into the learning not only helped her gain an edge by grasping a useful foreign language, but also boosted her confidence.
Babb made the remarks at a National Chinese Language Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
She said she worked very hard every day to learn Chinese. Hard work finally paid off when Babb succeeded in landing a job at Amazon, a U.S. electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Though having nil retail background at all, Babb shared with interviewers her story of learning Chinese and ended with telling them that she was capable of basically learning anything new.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The number of giant pandas in the wild in northwest China's Gansu Province has reached 130, an increase of 15 percent compared with 15 years ago.
A new survey has revealed that panda habitats also increased more than 3 percent in the period.
However, the survey warned that new hydropower plants, highways and high-voltage transmission facilities in the area have disturbed the animals' living environment.
Forestry officials say human activities and shrinking habitats have threatened giant pandas' survival. Many rare plant and animal species in the area are at risk of extinction.
By the end of 2013, there were 1,900 giant pandas living in the wild nationwide, an increase of 270, or 17 percent, from 10 years earlier.
