From the Salon.com interview with Rachel DeWoskin, who wrote Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China about her long career as an American star in a Chinese soap opera.

Often in China, I was embarrassed by my own difficult grasp on the language. For me, fluency and eloquence -- these are the staples of my life. The thing I care most about is language. And I care very much about how words fit together and which ones I choose and other people choose. Grammar mistakes light up in my mind, as in Word. And so in China I just felt powerless in that regard. I had no nuance, and I had no ability to communicate subtleties, and I felt crippled by that. And in a way I'm grateful, because it was so humbling. Anybody who's self-loving needs to take a trip out of his own language and try to communicate. It taught me more about the power of language and it taught me something about my own capabilities, the limits of my own competencies. Some of my gaffes were incredibly embarrassing at the time, but even then I had an inkling of perspective. I mean, in order to have a reasonable life abroad, you have to have a sense of humor.