Comments on: 1.3 billion people speak WHAT as a mother tongue?! http://www.sinoglot.com/bjs/2008/03/13-billion-people-speak-what-as-a-mother-tongue/?&owa_medium=feed&owa_sid= Home of the Beijing Sounds Studios: productions mostly of language through foreign ears Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:08:32 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: syz http://www.sinoglot.com/bjs/2008/03/13-billion-people-speak-what-as-a-mother-tongue/comment-page-1/#comment-12076 syz Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:17:30 +0000 http://www.bjshengr.com/bjs/?p=94#comment-12076 ~flow -- hard to disagree with your poetic approach to language acquisition. Normally I'd quibble about the statement that chinese characters are "used by hundreds upon hundreds of million people more or less efficiently" -- because in many cases it seems to be squarely on the side of <b>less</b> efficient. But it's kind of a moot point, as you say. Not only does a learner need to figure them out in order to achieve real fluency, but the characters do serve (as in your and Sima's case) as an inspiration to some. Not to me, but I can live with that and it's a good reminder that I should be a little less self-centered! ~flow — hard to disagree with your poetic approach to language acquisition. Normally I’d quibble about the statement that chinese characters are “used by hundreds upon hundreds of million people more or less efficiently” — because in many cases it seems to be squarely on the side of less efficient. But it’s kind of a moot point, as you say. Not only does a learner need to figure them out in order to achieve real fluency, but the characters do serve (as in your and Sima’s case) as an inspiration to some. Not to me, but I can live with that and it’s a good reminder that I should be a little less self-centered!

]]> By: ~flow http://www.sinoglot.com/bjs/2008/03/13-billion-people-speak-what-as-a-mother-tongue/comment-page-1/#comment-10726 ~flow Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:20:05 +0000 http://www.bjshengr.com/bjs/?p=94#comment-10726 i want to second Sima’s statement. for me, the only reason to ever start learning chinese at all was the characters. i went on because i wanted to see what it would be like to learn a language that is, in history, in writing, in speech, so utterly different from my mother tongue, german. there are many bad things that can be said about chinese characters, like there are simply too many of them (70'000 CJK glyphs are defined in unicode). they are, however, in fact used by hundreds upon hundreds of million people more or less efficiently, which means there is no getting around learning some of them when you want to achieve a certain level of proficiency in the language. in a way, learning the sounds or the writing or both of a language that is very different from your own is like doing martial arts: it requires a lot of discipline and a lot of time, it will help you break out of your habits. i respect every statement by a native that characters are hard, and i myself think they are, but please, as someone who has grown up with the ABC, do not assume that any other way of writing is just 'too hard' and 'inefficient'. i lived in taiwan, japan, and korea, and i've done this in other countries too: i seek to understand the phonological system of the language (in theory), how it gets expressed in the writing (in theory), how it actually sounds (in practice), plus---and this is surprisingly effective and fun thing to do---how the writing is actually used in practice, in everyday life, on the street, in the temples, in the papers, on the bus. i go there and read read read almost every sign i can grasp hold of, whether i understand it or not. i expose myself to the max, at times writing down particular things to look up later, at times just allowing my mind to float freely as the language that surrounds me rains down on me through my eyes and ears. for me, paying attention to writing and living in a city means that each newspaper stand, each shop sign, each street sign is my teacher. i want to second Sima’s statement. for me, the only reason to ever start learning chinese at all was the characters. i went on because i wanted to see what it would be like to learn a language that is, in history, in writing, in speech, so utterly different from my mother tongue, german.

there are many bad things that can be said about chinese characters, like there are simply too many of them (70′000 CJK glyphs are defined in unicode). they are, however, in fact used by hundreds upon hundreds of million people more or less efficiently, which means there is no getting around learning some of them when you want to achieve a certain level of proficiency in the language.

in a way, learning the sounds or the writing or both of a language that is very different from your own is like doing martial arts: it requires a lot of discipline and a lot of time, it will help you break out of your habits. i respect every statement by a native that characters are hard, and i myself think they are, but please, as someone who has grown up with the ABC, do not assume that any other way of writing is just ‘too hard’ and ‘inefficient’.

i lived in taiwan, japan, and korea, and i’ve done this in other countries too: i seek to understand the phonological system of the language (in theory), how it gets expressed in the writing (in theory), how it actually sounds (in practice), plus—and this is surprisingly effective and fun thing to do—how the writing is actually used in practice, in everyday life, on the street, in the temples, in the papers, on the bus. i go there and read read read almost every sign i can grasp hold of, whether i understand it or not. i expose myself to the max, at times writing down particular things to look up later, at times just allowing my mind to float freely as the language that surrounds me rains down on me through my eyes and ears. for me, paying attention to writing and living in a city means that each newspaper stand, each shop sign, each street sign is my teacher.

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