How fast can you read Chinese?

[Sky Harbor]

I hope I post this in the right forum.

Anyway, a few days ago, I was testing my reading using my Chinese textbook (NPCR Book 2), and I was not happy with the result. It turns out that I still read very slowly, and this is despite me having fairly passable character recognition in the texts I was reading.

So I'd like to ask everyone: how fast can you read Chinese? And, for those who read Chinese well, what can you suggest to improve our reading skills? Just something to ponder upon. ^_^

[skylee]

A) Read more. B ) Read what you enjoy.

When I read something that I like, I can read pretty fast (sometimes I have to tell myself to slow down so that I can enjoy it longer). But when I read something that is boring, eg reports that I have to read at work, I read much more slowly because a) they are boring and b ) I must read them carefully. My conclusion is that if you want to increase your reading speed, besides reading more, you should read things that you like (novels, entertainment news, sports news, etc).

PS - If possible, don't look up each word that you don't know when you are reading. That will turn a good read to a chore. Try to understand it based on the context.

[Gleaves]

Here is a good thread.

http://www.chinese-f...-reading-speed/

It varies, but I think I read about 150 characters a minute. I would like to get that to 300 this year. In addition to reading more, as skylee points out, I have also used the types of techniques in this thread (basically what imron suggests). I have had to make a dedicated effort to increase reading speed.

[Lu]

I think I'm at about 10 pages an hour. Very slow, especially compared to my speed in Dutch and English (which is about a book a day). I think the only solution is just reading more, at least that's how I managed the speed I have in reading Dutch and English. But I also think my Chinese reading speed will always be slower. Perhaps it's the characters, I once knew a Japanese guy who could read a Chinese book in a week. I don't think I can manage that (or perhaps only if the book is easy and I have a lot of time on my hands).

[xiaotao]

My kid has been studying Chinese for years. When they start out, they often need their pinyin, or bo po mo. By 5th grade I thought she needed to be able to read without it. The fun way to do it was to have her read aloud to somebody who can point out the unknown characters. She is a big Harry Potter fan so she was willing to stick to it. She used to read 4 pages an hour. In a year, she was speed reading. She was wanted to speed up or she'll never finish the books. Reading outside of school greatly improved her character recognition. I think more reading of material that is a little above your level would be helpful. If you are going to do it alone, then getting the right learning material is essential. I like the ones that have the translation and pinyin in the back. A series that comes to mind is Tales and Traditions by Cheng and Tsui.

[Sky Harbor]

I have kiddie versions of 三国演义 and 红楼梦, pinyin and all, which I hope will help me with my reading. I think I'll buy more books though in the future.

Probably a big issue for me is that I'm largely a visual learner, and while I can easily memorize (and remember) 汉字, it takes a while before I can read a character. It took a while before I could even read the sign of the university clinic with ease!