I can now read it, but cannot write it. I have had exposure to Chinese for 10 years. After 2.5 years of University classes, I could only read it here and there. It was really difficult. I think for me it took using Skritter and really becoming deeply familiar with writing the characters, then reading short stories via copy/paste in Pleco's clipboard reader. I think you could achieve it in a few years if your vocabulary is large enough to get a sense for what's going on in sentences that you read.
