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Let's learn a Chinese character and its pronunciation first.
青=qing
OK. Now we know 青 is pronounced as qing.
Next, let us guess how to pronounce 請.
請 is a combination of 言 and 青.
Remember how to pronounce 青? Yes, it is qing.
Then 請 = qing as well.
清=水+青=qing
情=心+青=qing
晴=日+青=qing
蜻=虫+青=qing
We can pronounce these characters by just looking at them, can't we?
I have a book written in Japanese in front of me, which title is： 絶妙な聞き方技術. No Hiragana or Katakana is typed by the Kanji.
Good analysis.
There is no evidence saying Chinese is more difficult than Japanese or Korean. While the Chinese written form is harder, its grammar is less complicated than either Japanese or Korean.
There is no evidence saying Chinese is more difficult than Japanese or Korean. While the Chinese written form is harder, its grammar is less complicated than either Japanese or Korean.
Plus the fact that Chinese word order generally follows Indo-European word order subject-verb-object whereas Korean and Japanese are subject-object-verb. This makes a significant difference in difficulty. The nice thing about Chinese is, despite the fact that 100% of the language is written in characters, the characters are almost always, if not always, read with one sound and one tone. Contrast to Japanese where the same chracter can be read multiple ways depending on usage.l like my 名鉄駅 and 名古屋 example where 名 has multiple readings
Chinese language is a logographic writing system, with each character represents a concept rather than a sound, as in syllabaric such as hiragana and katakana of Japanese or phonographic systems such as Latin alphabet and Korean Hangul. When learning to pronunce Chinese characters or words, the learner is required to memorize. Japanese Kanji are more complicated that many Kanji have more than one pronunciation. 3500 simplified characters are commonly used in Mainland China, 4759 traditional characters are commonly used in Hong Kong and 4808 characters are commonly used in Taiwan. Most of these commonly used characters are taught during a child's study at elementary school in Mainland China, HK, Macao and Taiwan. A senior high school student is therefore usually able to read, briefly understand and pronunce correctly almost all of the Chinese words and characters of most modern books in Chinese language.
Chinese language DO NOT have alphabets. Unlike Hangul and English words, they are not invented to let the readers able to pronunce it soon after reading it. Zhuyin and Pinyin are modern invention only. Native Chinese speaking small children do not learn their first dozens Chinese words by a phonetic system, we learn from what we heard from our family members and television. Zhuyin is taught to elementary school students in Taiwan. No phonetic system is used to teach Cantonese to children in HK and Macao. By the end of primary school, a native speaking Chinese should be able to pronunce fluently as he or she read a book, without looking up a dictionary for the correct pronunciation.
A foreign learner should be able to pronounce Japanese kana and Korean hangul by just looking at them. Japanese kanji, like Chinese characters will involve memorization if someone want to master them.
Kana and Hangul were invented to replace Chinese characters as the sole written script in Japan and Korea. Because by being phonetics, it would be easier for people to learn. Literacy rate could be higher in Japan and Korea than in Ming and Qing China, because traditional Chinese characters were harder to learn. Pinyin and Zhuyin did not exist in China for thousands of years, and are never used to write Chinese. People in Chinese dynasties had never seen Abcde. China had many illiterate people until a few decades ago. It is true that many Chinese people have grandparents or great grandparents who cannot read Chinese.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunbrainwashed
You also cannot pronounce Japanese words by just looking at it. If you don't have cursory knowledge of Japanese, you can't read 名鉄駅 by just looking at it either. By the way, 名 has multiple readings, and the reading for this phrase is different from 名古屋.
Chinese and Japanese have phonetic system and alphabet, what are you talking about? Just because they don't normally use it to write their languages, doesn't mean they don't have it. You don't need to hear someone pronounce Chinese characters. Look up the pinyin or zhuyin of the character in Chinese, or hiragana, katakana, or roumaji for Japanese Chinese characters. It's not difficult.
Even the day of Shang dynasty(from c. 1600 to 1046 BC), 45.6% of all Chinese characters were 形聲字, which form the majority of Chinese characters by far—over 90%, and were created by combining a rebus with a determinative—that is, a character with approximately the correct pronunciation (the phonetic element, similar to a phonetic complement) with one of a limited number of determinative characters which supplied an element of meaning (the semantic element, which in most cases is also the radical under which a character is listed in a dictionary). Refer to Wikipedia.
1. Japan has it all- incredibly convenience and modernity without being blandly Westernised, the most polite and refined people in the world, a pulsating, futuristic megapolis in the form of Tokyo juxtaposed with an ancient and spiritual culture that is well preserved, breathtaking scenery around Mt Fuji, wonderful skiing and tropical beaches, delicious and often very cheap food, fantastically good transport and incredible safety against crimes.
2. Laos and Myanmar- both countries are experiencing some incredible changes and here is so much dynamism and optimism in the air, they are poor but clean, tranquil and beautiful with friendly people and an abundance of lovely sights to see.
3. Thailand has a winning mix of friendly people, cheap and tasty food, incredible tropical scenery in and infectious (if highly chaotic) urbanity but it's become heavily overdeveloped and tacky in many places.
Did you travel throughout all the countries mentioned or you just made this rank due to researched information?
I think it is based on how those countries are portrayed in western media.
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