1 . Nowadays， lots of foreigners are learning Chinese． Like many of them， I____ knew two words of Chinese （"Ni Hao" and "Xie Xie"） when I first came to Beijing， China in 2009． As you can guess， my life was____for a while after I arrived． Simple tasks like ordering food or taking a taxi were quite stressful．

I knew I had to learn more Chinese， so I___ a Chinese class． My teacher was____ ， although   I didn't learn   enough to have a real conversation．Later I studied on my own as well， but my progress was still slow． And I decided to ____．

Around this time， I started playing in a band with a Chinese man who became one of my best friends in Beijing． He taught me a lot of___ about music， such as "melody"． He learned a lot of English from me   in return， so it was a good way to____ language and culture．

I have learned enough Chinese to ____   many problems like booking train tickets． These days，there are more foreigners who are studying Chinese．I can___why it's an amazing language． Finally， I found that the best way to learn a___ is to make friends with native speakers and spend time with them．