I graduated college and started the digital nomad thing back in 2016 -- first traveling to mainland China and then spending some time in Taiwan.

Intending to stay a stay a few months, I thought it would be good to learn the basics and met my now-wife through a language exchange group.

Time has a way of getting away from you, and I've now lived in Taiwan for a decade now with a 5 and a 2 year old. The first couple of years I did sit down and self-study for 30-60m a day, but have mostly deferred my dreams of getting to an advanced level to later in life.

I'm currently at a lower-intermediate level (somewhere around old HSK4) -- can get around (food, transportation, etc), handle most government and doctor visits, and have basic conversations around weather, food, and where I'm from. I still can't handwrite anything other than my chinese name, but can get by with pinyin on my phone and computer just fine.

I did actually vibe code an app to try and break through the intermediate plateau whenever I get time to come back to it (maybe once both kids are in school): https://nextword.app (note I haven't kept it up to date or am even sure if stripe still works on it).