I’ve studied it off and on since high school, but really struggle with speak. I get anxious about the times and accidentally saying something nonsensical. But we had a family show up that didn’t speak English, and I was able to do more than crank out 谢谢。
Ah, I see.
It’s hard for me to find joy in things right now. There’s too much rampant disregard for the state of the world, and I can’t bring myself to enjoy life while everything is burning around us all. I make an effort, occasionally - I played Minecraft for an hour last night, which is more gaming than I’ve done in several months - but it always comes back to “You’re just sitting here while life turns into Hell, and one day your children will look back and ask why you didn’t help them.” So, at the very least, I will not participate. I may not be actively trying to stop it, mostly because I’m so overwhelmed that I didn’t even know where to start, but it just doesn’t feel right to have fun while I’m convinced that there won’t be any for the future generations. And then I start thinking about all of the horrible things that have been done in order for me to even be here - the genocides that took place on this continent, the slave trade, the raping of the ecosystems - it’s just too much. We’ve lost so much culture and wisdom, and nobody seems to care at all. I hate people.
I would say that as long as you are worried about what’s going on and that you are consciously making choices that make the situation worse, that would already be a lot better than what the average person in a developed country is doing. Neither am I making all that much of an effort to stop it, but I would say every effort, however small, counts. You don’t have to be Greta Thunberg to make a difference. You don’t have to make a big difference - a small one is fine.
As I was writing this comment I also felt motivated by my own words lol. I should start acting more too. I might join protests calling for Israel to stop the genocide against Palestinians. I could also try floating problems like global warming or pollution during conversations with friends so that they know that people actually do care.