Mission Statement

I will be able to read Mandarin.

I will.

That's the level of confidence and dedication I feel I need to be able to do this. 

So the point of this blog is to document my sole goal of being able to read Mandarin.

I will be blogging daily and the point of this is to be able to look back in a year and see how far I have come and how much progress I have made. Hopefully....unless I give up.

No wait, I need confidence! Giving up is not an option.

Starting point

Okay so full disclosure. I actually started learning to speak Mandarin about a month ago using books and a lesson or two a week on Skype. 

But, I decided that I didn't want to learn to read Mandarin because it is too difficult. 

That was before I was grasped by some blinding motivation and optomism that said it might be an achievable goal. 

So 11 days ago (this being day 12) I started a self-implimented program of learning 25 characters a day. 

It's a good pace. Not too difficult, but pretty far from easy as well. 

Ultimate Goal

They say that you should announce your goals because you are more likely to keep to something if you think people expect it of you. So here we go.

My ultimate goal with this whole Mandarin reading endeavour is to be able to read Chinese literature. I'm talking old poems in Chinese from the various Dynasties, dusty scrolls of baffling Chinese characters, and epic novels written by emporers. 

I have literally no knowledge of Chinese literature and doubt they would even be written in the type of Chinese I am learning. But I am the sort of person to jump off a cliff before wondering how deep the water is. 

So let's do this!