nice community guys! absolutely no help at all...

@murrayjames: go be funny somewhere else, can't appreciate this

@kamjacobsen: yes you can "read" spokenchinese. When you chat you will mainly use spoken chinese, but instead of saying it you write it down. children books are a great example as well, as they are used to learn kids to "speak" mandarin. I just can't find these kind of resources to supplement my studies. (besides popupchinese ofcourse) :P