Learning Mandarin for the Fish and Chips: Learning Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan and Mandarin Legal Work in London

For one reason or another, after I arrived in Taiwan, I became the world’s most serious student. I spent almost every hour in the day memorizing Chinese characters, using special recording machines to listen to the feedback of my spoken Chinese tones and even learning Cantonese at the same time. I probably went to sleep quite early during this time and all I remember dreaming of was my Chinese characters, but I was often awake or kept half awake waiting for the next creak, crash, bang, unkn...