Re:Why Chinese Is So Damned Hard
by tokenadult on Friday May 21, 2010 @09:28PM
(#1369530)
we can still read the same newspaper
Only if your schooling has exposed you consciously to the vocabulary and grammatical structures of written Chinese that differ from your regional dialect, as it surely has. Lessons in literacy in vernacular Chinese literature ( 白話文 ) are in part lessons in the spoken grammar and vocabulary of the language reflected in that literature, which these days is usually Modern Standard Chinese.
If we had a phonetic alphabet, it would be nearly impossible to communicate in any kind of written medium.
The experience of Western cognate languages suggests that people can always more readily communicate in writing in sound-indicating scripts than they can speak over the telephone. After edit: for example, I have read several Spanish-language letters that came randomly to business offices I worked in, without any formal course in Spanish, but I would certainly have great difficulty carrying on a conversation in Spanish.
Only if your schooling has exposed you consciously to the vocabulary and grammatical structures of written Chinese that differ from your regional dialect, as it surely has. Lessons in literacy in vernacular Chinese literature ( 白話文 ) are in part lessons in the spoken grammar and vocabulary of the language reflected in that literature, which these days is usually Modern Standard Chinese.
If we had a phonetic alphabet, it would be nearly impossible to communicate in any kind of written medium.
The experience of Western cognate languages suggests that people can always more readily communicate in writing in sound-indicating scripts than they can speak over the telephone. After edit: for example, I have read several Spanish-language letters that came randomly to business offices I worked in, without any formal course in Spanish, but I would certainly have great difficulty carrying on a conversation in Spanish.