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Young Part-Timer: Have you read Jin Yong?
Me: Oh yeah, I tried to once! It was way too hard for me?
Young Part-Timer: Oh, he's easy, though! I only went to school in China up to second grade and I can read his books. They're like Harry Potter!
Me, on a third attempt: ...These are words that aren't even in the dictionary. These are hanzi that I don't even know, and I know more than 3000.
I CAN read books that are written for a 3rd or 4th grade level. With a lot of dictionary lookup, I can read pop fiction for adults. Jin Yong? Waaaaay over my head still. It is my only great regret of learning Chinese that I'd really like to be able to read wuxia novels someday, and they're all like "Oh, let's throw in all the obscure 4-character compounds" and "Hey, what's a really archaic word for the color blue?"
This is why, when you're reading in a second language, you have to be very careful about thinking you can just read books for children and they'll be easy; SO MUCH of what you know about your native language is stuff that you learn by the time you're six or seven. And most of that seems very natural and very easy when you look back as an adult. And it's hard to imagine how much harder it is if it's not your native language.
Me: Oh yeah, I tried to once! It was way too hard for me?
Young Part-Timer: Oh, he's easy, though! I only went to school in China up to second grade and I can read his books. They're like Harry Potter!
Me, on a third attempt: ...These are words that aren't even in the dictionary. These are hanzi that I don't even know, and I know more than 3000.
I CAN read books that are written for a 3rd or 4th grade level. With a lot of dictionary lookup, I can read pop fiction for adults. Jin Yong? Waaaaay over my head still. It is my only great regret of learning Chinese that I'd really like to be able to read wuxia novels someday, and they're all like "Oh, let's throw in all the obscure 4-character compounds" and "Hey, what's a really archaic word for the color blue?"
This is why, when you're reading in a second language, you have to be very careful about thinking you can just read books for children and they'll be easy; SO MUCH of what you know about your native language is stuff that you learn by the time you're six or seven. And most of that seems very natural and very easy when you look back as an adult. And it's hard to imagine how much harder it is if it's not your native language.