As Chinese was my first language, when learning how to read Japanese, I would sometimes get stuck on a sequence of kana, but then understand completely when the relevant kanji was substituted in its place. Similarly, when I write stuff, I tend to use kanji whenever possible to make clear the meaning of the words.
Is this normal for people from a Chinese background? Or is it just me trying to leverage my knowledge of Chinese as much as possible, regardless of whether it actually helps?