I do. I've been on MATE for 8 or 9 years now. I like GNOME 2 environment a lot, lightweight, still looks nice, has a "classic" PC interface compared to tabletified looking icons. It just works.
I'm currently learning Mandarin. I've been going at it (slowly) for a couple of months now. I'm amazed how simplified (pun, get it?) it is compared to English. I only reading pinyin and speaking/listening. I'm not too worried about reading hanzi yet.
My whole goal to start learning was just to be able to talk to Chinese ham radio operators and order takeout lol
Can you do a dianostics check? Sounds like an 11 year old laptop might be dying?