Follow

5 min read

·

Mar 31, 2026

Share

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Photo by Microsoft Copilot on Unsplash

I went to Taiwan to study Mandarin Chinese in 2024 and just very recently returned home last month. I remember at that time, the use of AI was not as insanely prevalent as it is today — at least where I came from, and ChatGPT was still pretty inefficient at generating answers to even the most basic prompts.

There was plenty of inaccuracy and false information, and at one point, it advised me on my English speaking skills when I asked how to communicate effectively with Taiwanese people as a novice Mandarin Chinese learner.

Fast forward to the present day, when social media is filled to the brim with AI-generated content and websites' AI articles, and I started to make sense of why I made the right decision to live abroad (again) and immerse myself in a completely foreign environment with zero local language skills.

I had to study again like I was 10 and unintentionally do things that might be considered dated by today’s standards such as using textbooks, practicing Chinese stroke writing by hand, memorizing new vocabulary, and dealing with some local bureaucracies manually. From there, I got this eureka moment that my new habits actually helped me avoid relying too much on AI’s automation.

In this climate, where you can literally ask ChatGPT to do every single task, including…