Learning a language is not that hard. Everybody does it, so it is not be that hard. I learned French and Spanish natively because of my family, but I speak oth

Learning a language is not that hard. Everybody does it, so it is not be that hard. I learned French and Spanish natively because of my family, but I speak other languages like German or Mandarin, although I only know the most common Chinese symbols I can understand people talking and communicate myself effectively. The most important thing is not forgetting what you learn, specially when the neural connections are weak. For this I used Anki and my own tools. You do not need to push yourself so much. In fact I do not recommend pushing yourself into a foreign environment without basic understanding, specially If you are an adult and need to function in that enviroment. I traveled to Germany only after studying it for years 30 min a day. It was much better experience than in China in witch it was similar to your "pushing yourself" method where very few people speak English. In China the rate at which I could learn was not better than if I had started learning that in Europe. It overwhelmed my capabilities. Also, China is a different culture, and you have to learn it the hard way with painful misunderstandings.