I know about 5,000 words now. But reading articles at that level? Still painful.

Every word looks familiar, but I can’t process sentences fast enough. A few paragraphs in and my brain just gives up.

I complained to a friend about this, and he told me to try back-translation. Here’s how it works:

1. Pick an English article
2. Translate it into Chinese
3. Wait a bit, then translate your Chinese back into English
4. Compare your version with the original

You’ll see right away where you’re weak — the words you didn’t use, the sentences you made awkward, the expressions you couldn’t come up with.

It’s like: output → compare → fix. Over and over.