This seems to be the only thing I can write about this week…but I did so enjoy reading this story about Michael Phelps struggles learning Mandarin:
Phelps: Mandarin harder than winning gold (August 20, 2008, Xinhua)
It turns out swimming miracle Michael Phelps can achieve almost anything. But there is one thing he is still struggling to overcome – learning Chinese. "Learning Mandarin is even harder than winning eight gold medals in the pool," said the 23-year-old American. "It is the hardest thing I've ever tried in my life." Phelps took French and German courses when he was in primary school, but the swimming ace said Chinese is much harder to learn. "The language is so tough," he said. "I started taking some Chinese lessons after learning French and German. After a while I could speak a little and understand a little. But all the words, characters and pronunciations in Mandarin are so different. All of them are hard to manage." Asked to speak some Mandarin during the interview, Phelps laughed and said: "My accent is not good. I don't want to embarrass myself."
It turns out swimming miracle Michael Phelps can achieve almost anything. But there is one thing he is still struggling to overcome – learning Chinese. "Learning Mandarin is even harder than winning eight gold medals in the pool," said the 23-year-old American. "It is the hardest thing I've ever tried in my life." Phelps took French and German courses when he was in primary school, but the swimming ace said Chinese is much harder to learn. "The language is so tough," he said. "I started taking some Chinese lessons after learning French and German. After a while I could speak a little and understand a little. But all the words, characters and pronunciations in Mandarin are so different. All of them are hard to manage." Asked to speak some Mandarin during the interview, Phelps laughed and said: "My accent is not good. I don't want to embarrass myself."
yeti speak... 
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