In an attempt to get me learning Chinese, my dad gave me a box of Chinese comics about China's history (or something like that). So I took the first book and my handy dandy dictionary to work and tried to read the comic book. After the first page, my brain was exhausted because I can barely read zhu yin after 8 years of not using it.

So...that was a fail. I don't think I'll ever conquer this complicated language.