Chinese languages

I have had good success so far. When I showed the book to a Chinese friend, she was shocked to see that I was learning the "traditional" characters and not the "simplified" which are much easier. Anyway, and interesting conversation here .

In the mainland books I read, (not a wide variety, as they're mainly confined to a narrow field of interest) characters which don't have official simplification are written in their traditional form.

I don't think my fluency, especially listening, reached close to my current ability until after about 2 years, and since that time I haven't studied anymore [Mandarin], but started focusing on other Chinese languages.