Positive stereotypes

So, the past month or so I've been thinking that my Chinese studies have been going very badly. Up until earlier today that is. Over the last three weeks I've slowly been coming to the conclusion that the best meter by which to judge myself might not be the class average. For a while I held out grand hopes that somehow I would mount a miraculous comeback and overtake most of the class. As it became clear that my study habits weren't actually that poor and that my further capacity was limited, disillusionment set in followed by anxiety regarding future plans. Today two things happened. The first was that for a brief moment I angled my computer screen to see the reflections of my western compatriots (my seat is toward the front of the class). Both of them were just as lost. The real kicker though was that later in the day my friend told me that apparently the Asians in the class DON'T STUDY. Maybe it was a little racist of me, I had assumed that because the rest of the class was Asian my study habits weren't on par. It turns out the language simply comes much more naturally to the Koreans and Japanese.

That being said, the idea that I might not be absorbing all that's possible still haunts me. While the volume of my studying is probably sufficient the efficiency of it most likely is not. Put me in front of a research paper and it's a done deal. I have a set system for researching the topic, formulating an opinion, taking notes, cataloging information then writing and citing the paper. Ceteris paribus my 30 hours of effort will be of a higher quality than that of the average student. There's a learning curve to learning, and taking on a new a language is something I've never done before.