The life of a Chinese learner living in China... part 3 As posted on Facebook

At this point in the game, I can do alot in China. In this way, I am fairly independent. As I commented on before, people speak with different accents and dialects. Some are easier to understand than others. With some people, it is like I can't speak Chinese at all. With others, they can understand everything I say. I talk with one Chinese woman who runs a gift shop downtown. She can understand me. I am able to speak what is commonly understood to be the main dialect of Chinese. If I am in Beijing, I can talk with almost anyone. I have a fairly decent vocabulary, but my grammar is awful. From what I'm told, my accent isn't that bad, but not that good either. People are able to understand me. My listening is not that good. I can read some Chinese, but there are limitations to what I can do. I can understand a basic text message from a Chinese friend, but I cannot read a newspaper. What I hope to improve on is listening and grammar. I think that if these things improve, I will be able to speak Chinese quite well. I guess that is all I want to say right now.