My husband and I decided to learn Chinese a year ago. We've never been to China, but we want to go there next year. We were advised to have lessons and we've been studying with a private teacher for three months - we're usually given some homework to do every week. I started mine after I got back from work last night. I know that my grammar isn't very good yet, but while I was reading my coursebook I recognised a lot of Chinese characters so I think my vocabulary is getting better. My husband often works late so he can't study much, but he's having a few days' holiday at the moment so he can do a bit more. Our teacher says that we've learned a lot since September. We were very pleased when she told us that! Before we started having lessons we'd never spoken any Chinese at all!