Re:The Chinese character system is a brake on development
by ignord on Friday January 22, 2016 @05:34AM
(#10951940)
Lived in Taiwan 3 years - picked up Advanced spoken proficiency and intermediate reading / writing in Traditional Mandarin. Studied Simplified Mandarin @ Brigham Young University. While studying we became conversant in modern Mandarin and also Ancient text including The Dao De Jing, Mencius, Confucius etc.
There is a beauty and depth to the language not available in the romance languages or German: may I recommend www.zhongwen.com as an introduction.
With modern keyboard input methods producing Chinese text is not a difficult task although learning the writing system is not for the faint of heart. Not just due to the characters but also the syntax of the language. English generally is a head-first language where as Chinese is a head-last language. Combine this with careful character placement within the syntax and you have a minefield awaiting the non-native writer.
What English lacks in concentrated depth and beauty it makes up for in flexibility and diversity.
There is a beauty and depth to the language not available in the romance languages or German: may I recommend www.zhongwen.com as an introduction.
With modern keyboard input methods producing Chinese text is not a difficult task although learning the writing system is not for the faint of heart. Not just due to the characters but also the syntax of the language. English generally is a head-first language where as Chinese is a head-last language. Combine this with careful character placement within the syntax and you have a minefield awaiting the non-native writer.
What English lacks in concentrated depth and beauty it makes up for in flexibility and diversity.