My Chinese Teacher's Last Piece of Advice and My New Quest

I remember my worst week in college.  Within the span of a week, I had to deflate a cyst on my back, meet a long time friend who came to town, decide whether to go to Germany to do research, had roommate issues, head out of town to visit my mom, and write a five page paper on the Chinese scientific community... in Chinese.

After finishing my essay and burning out my last brain cell, I then had to prepare a presentation to the class about my essay.  I can write Chinese fairly comfortably, I can pronounce the words like a literate person, but if I had to answer questions at the caliber of what was expected of my class, I get scared shitless.

I have no idea how I pulled through my Chinese language class.  The teacher asked  questions like: 

 

"Do you agree with Mencius that human goodness is innate?"

"To what extent do you feel cultural stereotypes are valid?"

"What's your view on the death penalty?"

I would sit in my class sweating, clenching my bowels, hoping my name doesn't get called. I was sitting there like a mute person.  I could hear and understand what everyone was saying, but I was so intimidated by my classmates that I would simply freeze.

I managed to survive, and on the final day of class after everyone gave their presentations, my teacher gave us one last piece before our language class forever:

"Right now you are at the peak of your Chinese language skills, after this day and henceforth, most of you will gradually lose this ability unless you move to Asia.  I have only one piece of advice:  Read.  Read as much as you can as frequently as you can."

I've been reading on and off on my own, but it's hard to to stay focused when I'm reading alone.  I also know that some of you out there are trying to learn Chinese, so I hope I won't be lazy and share my experience with you guys.  Right now I would say I read at a middle school level in a Chinese school system, so around 2000-2500 characters are under my belt.  I would need a couple thousand more to read at an academic level.  

I'm going to start a little project.  This may fizzle out in a day, or could hold the key to my success. I'm going to learn 5 characters a day, everyday for the next two years.  If I can maintain this pace, I could learn another 3500 characters.

The first five characters will be up tomorrow.  I hope this works.