not sure if there's a consensus or agreed number for this...but to be able to read most signs, papers, books, newspapers etc in Chinese (preferably traditional, as I'm in Taiwan)
what is the least number of Chinese characters I should be expected to know and commit to memory?
I've heard around 2000-3000...is this correct to assume, or is there more/less that I can get away with knowing?
Perhaps the 2000 is just for the Japanese learners, and that applies to the number of Kanji they are expected to know...
In any case, I'd like to get a more tangible, definite estimate of how many characters I ought to know!
I think also, someone had posted a list online awhile back about the most frequent or important characters to know...If anyone wouldn't mind posting that link again, that would be great =) thanks!