Am I wasting time learning a new language?

I spent the whole afternoon revising my language flashcards and I suddenly found myself asking this pertinent question: am I wasting time learning a language I will never master or use?

I know I have been very fervent about languages lately and I have been learning Mandarin for the last eight months and Korean for the last eleven. I would spend at least 30 minutes a day initially but as I move on to more complicated parts of the languages, I am now taking at least an hour or two every day to complete the flashcards. 

That is a lot of time on a daily basis, and so I do wonder now if I am wasting my time.

I am quite happy that I am progressing well with my Mandarin, compared to the times when I struggle so hard to learn it but never got beyond just knowing a few common characters. But I still could not think or speak freely in Mandarin, and I still find reading anything in that language difficult. For example, when I had dinner with my mother-in-law yesterday evening, I was helping her with her iPhone settings. But I could not make out what was what when Chinese was the default language. 

More so with Korean. I can now say and write really simple sentences but what on earth am I going to use it for?

The one reason I will not be stopping though is because I already invested so much time in them. 

And my current take on it is this: Chinese is suppose to be my so-called mother-tongue and with it being so widely spoken here, I shall persevere on with it. 

As for Korean, I shall take it as a hobby and what more, I am making really good friends with several Korean language partners and so I’m sticking on with it, for now. 

And I’ll never know, something good may come out of in the future. 

pearlie