Sorry for the late reply.

I consider characters separate from words. If I do not recognize either character, I would count it as 3 (character + character + word) UNLESS it is a set of characters which are only used in that one pairing, in which case it only gets counted as one. How do I know whether those characters are generally only used in that one word? I check dictionaries.

If I recognize both characters, but not the pairing, that only counts as one.

Fair enough. Perhaps this hinges on different interpretations of both what Sara said and what it means to ‘read’ a novel. Being prepared to pick up a Chinese book densely packed with margin-to-margin characters is one thing (and not a small thing, I will freely concede). However, ‘reading’ it – as opposed to ‘deciphering’ or ‘studying’ it – is something different, I’d argue.

I think the line which raised eyebrows was the assertion that Sara had reached a point where “my Chinese reading skills are approaching my English reading skills”. I think a reasonable reading of that sentence would be to infer that Sara’s English and Chinese reading skills are becoming roughly equivalent in strength (though I appreciate there is an alternatively reading where the word ‘approach’ means merely that the gap is being closed somehow, even if the two competencies are still very unequal). If Sara really did mean that, then, yes, I feel justified in being a tad dispirited. For my part, I am able to make my way through modern Chinese novels and newspaper articles (and make sense of the odd Weibo posting – though this is probably the most difficult task of all), but it is still a slow process and demands far more mental strength than doing the same in English. Yes, in some ways, getting this far was a battle of confidence as well as linguistic ability, and perhaps I was slow to pick up confidence. But I couldn’t possibly suggest my Chinese reading level is anywhere near my English level. Moreover, no matter how many hours I put in, or where in the world I move to, I guess this will always be the case.

I’m not trying to respond to this in Sara’s place or anything, I hope she will give her own answer, but I want to point out that I went from zero to being able to read novels in about three years (whereof one was very far from immersion). Sure, I needed a dictionary, and sure, I didn’t understand everything. Was it enjoyable? Yes! Was it done with the ease of a native speaker? No! Reading novels is definitely possible, reading novels with the ease of an educated native speaker is perhaps not impossible, but very, very, very hard. I’m not trying to say that people who can’t read novels after three years are stupid, but I am saying that it’s definitely possible. It should be possible considerably faster than I did it, too.

Though I appreciate I probably sound very snarky, the reason I making the point isn’t to snipe or be willfully sarcastic. Rather it is born of a concern that implying it is possible to spend two to three years learning Chinese (as a non-native adult learner) and emerging at a point where your native reading skills and Chinese skills are much-of-a-muchness is, to my mind, only likely to discourage those – like myself, perhaps – who have spent a good deal more time than that studying and yet continue to find reading in Chinese a real challenge. Even if one is lucky enough to be residing in a Chinese-speaking part of the world, have the freedom to spend every waking hour learning Chinese, and have the pedagogical insights to make full use of this labour, I don’t think many people could realistically achieve such a feat. If you have scaled these heights in such a short time, good on you; your insights are certainly of value. However, maybe a bit more disclosure on language background, or at least more detail on learning circumstances, is required to stave off festering resentments among the long-suffering, hard-working, Chinese-learning souls out here in the ether. Though it’s always dangerous to second guess a stranger’s circumstances (not least one I have never before personally met!), I suppose the blog would make much more sense if, for example, you had some kind of background in Chinese prior to formal study, or, say, you are a native Spanish speaker and thus your English is perhaps not absolutely perfect – making achieving parity between Chinese and English much more likely. Your excellent written expression suggests the second scenario is probably not the case!

Apologies for concentrating to intently on one small aspect of the blog. As I said, there’s lots to take away from this. Many thanks for sharing.