Saying you’re not ”actually” reading books because you keep skipping pages is like saying you’re not “actually” watching TV because you’re switching channels.
The argument is exposed for the silliness it is as soon as we replace the variables. And, in this way, it’s a lot like the belief that a high score on a standardized language test guarantees ability in that language. As a native English speaker, you could not give two smelly bowel movements what someone’s TOEIC score is, but replace English with Chinese and suddenly you’re on your knees, a faithful worshipper, genuflecting at their HSK Level.
Get off your linguistic knees. You don’t need to submit to authority so easily or completely. Or, frankly, at all. Especially not empty, baseless authority. If nothing else, know that reality is a higher authority. Although often accused of cruelty, in truth, she is kinder, gentler — in her own way; she is always fair and she never makes exceptions.
P.S. People routinely pay me money to translate Japanese into Chinese. This is not bragging; this is proof of concept. You’ve seen my face and so have they: it’s not a face that screams “East Asia”. I have not a single paper qualification except for the fact that I can actually do the work. Game recognizes game. Repeated exposure — immersion and Surusu — is the game that gets and keeps you in the game.
Information is no respecter of persons. That doesn’t mean that information doesn’t respect you (lol); it means that information treats us all equally, without respect to our human backstories. Information only cares about other information, not people. The only barrier between you and information is other information about or pertaining to the target information. That’s why structuring information in time and space like we do with MCD cards on the SRS is so important.
Memorization is magic. Try it and see. Collect knowledge (interconnected facts in head), not pieces of glorified toilet paper that claim knowledge.
That’s a lot of apparently disconnected ideas to unpack, but there is, dare I say it (hey, it’s not like I could sound any more arrogant than I already do, amiright? lol), wisdom in there for the attentive.