[but i can't read picture books either]

i have been learning chinese for 16 years now and for the most part, cannot read the newspaper. i can string together words that i know and use them and the pictures in context to grab at the meaning. i can stutter through sentences as people correct me with the patience of saints.

i was once set to copy an article and these three characters kept coming up and i sounded them out -- oh ban ma.
it was obviously about obama but i didn't get it. i thought they were talking about some rare type of european zebra [no joke, no racism.]
see, that was because the article had no pictures.

but it turns out i can still read more than my grandmother because she's illiterate.
she was born in china. she has lived there for 70+ years. and she can read less of her own language than her granddaughter who has picked it up in bits, pieces, and a volunteer-run chinese school?

well NOW i feel like a jerk.
this summer i will bring back chinese picture books to read to her.