Ah, New Year's - that special date on the Roman calendar designated for pledging to redress our long-term shortcomings.

We make our oaths of self-improvement on January 1 and - aside from a handful of weirdos - break them before the month has ended.

Like many expats in China, my primary New Year's resolution is to make progress with my putonghua. The laowai population has two extremes: The 99.99 percent who know just "1-10", "yes/no" and "beer"; and the less than 0.01 percent who are Da Shan (a Canadian who is famous in China for speaking good Mandarin).

I fall somewhere on this spectrum, closer to the ineloquent boozers than Big Mountain, in both proficiency and studiousness.

I currently take two lessons a week and do about two hours of homework outside of class. So I only use two books, even though several trees gave their lives to provide reams of paper for the dozens of texts and flashcards lining my bookshelf.

I do pick these study aids up from time to time, usually when dusting, but I don't thumb through these texts regularly enough to get much more from them than the occasional paper cut.

Though I rarely miss class and I have never failed to turn in my homework, at the current rate of intensity learning Chinese I'll be fluent in time to chat the ears right off the nursing home staff.

I know people who clock off their shifts and rush home to tackle texts, flip through flashcards and ponder putonghua listening exercises without being accountable to anybody but themselves for their progress.

Not me. I find it too easy to come home from a day's work and, rather than shove my nose in the books, plop my rear on the couch to watch a DVD or nine.

I intend to study afterward, but there's always something else I hadn't realized I immediately needed to take care of, such as the dusting or imagining what kind of children Richard Simons and Janet Reno might have together.

Simply put, I need discipline

I'm just too lazy to really progress with self-study. However, put me in a class with grades, tests and homework, and I'll find the time no matter what.

So, it seems the only thing I can do to transform my language deficiencies into proficiencies is to spend more time in a classroom setting. What I really need is a baihua boot camp, complete with training, exercises and drills to transform me from a slacking student to a Mandarin machine.

I've come to realize the only way to make sure my resolve to become a better student goes any further than previous New Years' pledges to quit smoking, start exercising and stop biting my nails, is to enroll in weekend classes.

But the question will be whether or not I can track down and sign up for these courses before January 31. Otherwise, like for many other foreigners with the same resolution, it will be the same old story for the new year.

Contact the author at erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/26/2007 page15)