The Lonely Podcaster
The Lonely Podcaster is a raw and personal journey into the life of an expat entrepreneur navigating business, culture, and identity in Shanghai. It’s about the quiet moments between the hustle — the early mornings in coffee shops, the late nights of reflection, and the in-between spaces where ideas are born. Each episode shares unfiltered thoughts on running a business abroad, cultural clashes, family life far from home, and the challenges (and beauty) of building a life outside your comfort zone. It’s not polished or scripted — just real stories from someone trying to make it work, one episode at a time.
The Lonely Podcaster
Living in China Without Speaking Mandarin: My Honest Journey & Struggles with the Language
In this episode, I open up about one of the most personal and, honestly, frustrating parts of my life in China, learning Mandarin. After years of living here, doing business, raising a family, and calling this place home, the language barrier has remained one of my biggest challenges. I talk about why it’s been so hard for me to really master Mandarin, how it’s made me feel over the years, and what it means to finally make some real progress.
Whether you’re an expat, a language learner, or just curious about life in China, this is an honest reflection on what it’s like to live long-term in a country without speaking the language fluently, and how that slowly starts to change.
