Well, 'wo qu kan shu le' is more 'I'm off to read to a book now' - it's a status update you might announce to a friend as you're about to do something. 'Wo hui kan shu' doesn't sound like a complete sentence to me - it sounds like there's a condition attached. But perhaps a native speaker might give you a better idea on this. Be careful with 'I will read a book' in English. 'Will' in this context carries the connotation that you are making a promise to someone - i.e. I promise I will read a book. If this isn't the context you intend, and you're just announcing what you're going to do as a general statement then 'I'm going to read a book' is better. I've noticed that 'will' is often misused by people learning English. It is not a general indicator of a future act. 'Will' is more used for making a prediction, showing willingness to do something or if you are making a promise to someone. Hope that helps, Tim

I think that sentence is fine. I would probably say 'can't spare one hour each week to chat to their friend on Skype...' Just seems smoother to me. Hope that helps, Tim

'Very much' and 'a lot' have a similar meaning, but the usage is different. 'A lot' is used more for things you can count (e.g. A lot of people), or to indicate that an action is carried out to a high degree of frequency (e.g. he shouts a lot). 'Very much' is more used to intensify the degree of a single action. So 'thank you a lot' does not sound grammatically correct to me, as it's a single act of thanking, so adding 'a lot' does not work. 'Thank you very much' is perfectly OK as 'very much' is used to indicate that your act of thanking is meant to a high degree. 'Thanks a lot' is also perfectly OK as 'thanks' is now a countable noun, rather than a single action verb. Hope that helps, Tim

Hi Sam, I've been learning Mandarin for just over two years now and have got to a B2/possible C1 level. Based on my experience, I'd answer your questions as such: 1) Yes, characters might look daunting at first, but you get used to them surprisingly quickly. I dare say they even start to make sense on some level. You will find reading slow going to begin with, but your speed will pick up with practice. I know many people say that it's the characters that make Mandarin a hard language. I've not found that to be true - to me, that just seems to be an assumption the Chinese have made themselves when trying to put themselves in the shoes of a Westerner learning their language. A character based writing system is just different, as opposed to hard. The human brain does actually respond and take to pictures quite well, which is why the Chinese writing system is actually quite efficient when you think about it. Don't get me wrong - Mandarin is absolutely a difficult language for Westerners to learn (probably the *most* difficult), but it's not because of the characters. 2) Young people and (probably) people generally in major Chinese cities will almost certainly be able to understand and help you in English. I have found that taxi drivers seldom speak English, though. 3) Yes again - I work full time and have been able to make decent progress with learning Mandarin 'on the side'. Some student friends of mine have done the same outside of their core studies. Hope that helps, Tim