老师，老师！(Teacher, Teacher!)
A few years has passed.
When you open your eyes, you see a tall man with a white bushy beard. He strokes his beard magnificently while staring into the distance. His student, which you by now recognize, awaits his teachings.
"学生 (Student), here's what you're going to do.
You raise an eyebrow.
"Write down these 25 words.", he points to his well-worn, aged book.
"Then, you will pronounce each and every word. Make sentences with those words and pronounce them as well. Now go!"
The student nods and proceeds to write.
You look over his shoulder. You notice the strange words being written.
Nǐ
Wǒ
Shì
Tā
What you are seeing is called Pinyin.
You can think of it as Chinese characters being "translated" into the English alphabet.
Huh, you're beginning to wonder if he's finally on the right track to learning all of this.
Once the student finished writing down all the words, he started to pronounce them.
Quite badly.
"NeEeeEee"
"WoaaHHhh"
"ShhHhhEEe"
"TaAAaa"
The teacher nods and strokes his beard. He repeats the words correctly and instructs his student to repeat them again, to no obvious improvement.
"Mhmm, nevermind. Go and write down some sentences."
Perplexed, you have the vague idea that Chinese grammar is supposed to be different from English. Did you miss a scene where the teacher taught his student grammar?
You infact, did not.
Wǒ māo
Wǒ shì nǐ xuéshēng
Nǐ shì wǒ lǎoshī
The student pronounces all 25 sentences he made up on the spot. His teacher nods and strokes his beard.
As his teacher begins to correct his god-awful grammar and pronunciation, the alarm rings.
"Look like that's it for today's class! See you again next month 👋."
The student gave his teacher 50 dollars and waved him goodbye. The student, looking a bit dispirited, went to watch some anime to keep it off his mind.
For obvious reasons, this phase didn't last very long.
You hear a loud sigh.
Let's get out of here.
The fog of time swirls around you. It sucks you in like a straw.
You spiral out from the past.
Into the present day.