I found out about some evening classes through a circular email and persuaded my friends Lizzy and Jo to join me. They in turn would persuade me to come along to the Sino-English Corner run nearby afterwards and this formed the start of my real (although totally informal) Chinese language learning. Calligraphy on Tuesday evenings became a fixed event in my week that I would look forward to. Our young teacher was helpful and always cheerful, and we got to write out some phrases on large pieces of paper to take home with us each week – I bet I would cringe at my brushwork if I saw them now. I find any sort of art very relaxing and calligraphy was a time I could forget about my work for a while and just concentrate on writing characters.

When I arrived in Chongqing in September 2012 I got straight into calligraphy again. I started practising with a colleague of mine, Miss Yu, who teaches Russian. She herself has only being doing calligraphy for a few years and we've only ever practised as friends, rather than her teaching me specific things. She's been incredibly sweet to me, my Chongqing auntie really.

I write calligraphy for projects that I set myself, usually making posters or decorating postcards to sent to family and friends. I set myself the task of producing some Chinese New Year calligraphy couplets (春联 - chun1lian2) for Spring Festival this year. I decorated my bedroom door with some and also gave some to my friends. Recently I've been working on writing some poems, thanks to a little book of Chinese poetry (actually a primary school textbook!) given to me as a birthday present by my friend Fan Qi. I want the satisfaction of producing a long scroll of calligraphy, but of course this takes practice. But practice makes perfect – 熟能生巧 (shu2neng2sheng1qiao3)!

My appreciation of calligraphy has also increased recently, this Spring Festival I was able to visit galleries in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many of the works I saw took my breath away with their technical brilliance and beauty but I also became more critical in my appreciation, deciding which styles I preferred over others.

In the future I'd like to study calligraphy formally in a class, with a teacher observing my work and giving me tips on how to improve. I hope this will mean I make significant progress. I want to keep writing calligraphy throughout my life. I'm sure my calligraphy will only ever be hanging on my bedroom walls, and not those of any gallery, but I know I'll continue to get a sense of satisfaction and achievement from writing it.