Welcome to Lao Wai Da Wei!   I’m Dave Landis and I’ve had an interest in learning languages since high school.

It started with a German class and for some reason, I decided to also take French.  So, I had two years of each.   My German teacher was really pretty boring, but I picked up a German graded reader and picked up quite a bit one my own.

That’s why I’ll devote some space on this blog to Chinese graded readers, there’s some really great products out there to make your learning fun!

In college, I met a lot of Vietnamese “boat people”.  Living in the MidWest, meeting from Asia was somewhat exotic!  It was my first exposure to an Asian language and tones. It set the tone (pardon the pun) for learning Chinese which also is a tonal language.

At my university I also made friends with a number of students from Taiwan and even visited a couple of them in Taiwan during their summer break.   My interest in Chinese developed as a result of these visits.   And I made more friend with the first big wave of students from the People’s Republic of China.

When my university offered a Chinese class at night, I was already a working professional, but I jumped at the opportunity to study another language.   I loved it and did very well.

I was excited when I was able to move to San Jose, California because I knew I’d have more opportunities to expand my learning and exposure to Chinese cuisine and culture.   I also met a lady from Taiwan and we were married.

I didn’t return to the campus to learn Chinese for many years, having a family took priority.  But the Internet and smart phones solved that problem.   Learning platforms such as ChinesePod, ChineseClass101, and Yoyo Chinese made learning on the go possible.