| Jian Shuo, I think you are absolutely right about Chinese. Because the characters are not necessarily tied to the sound, one can learn to communicate in writing without having to learn what sound to use. So the poor languages stuck with "water" and "l'eau" and "agua" can't easily exchange information with each other, but if you know 水; means the same thing, you don't have to master the sound-based spelling to communicate. The first time I was in China and understood very little Chinese (well, that's still mostly true) people would write on their hands to communicate what I hadn't understood them saying. I was so flattered that they thought I could read that. But now I understand why. Hey, I'm still flattered. I use chinesepod.com to learn more, but I've got a long way to go. |
Chinese Characters