Quote:
Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
Duh, I know that the keyboard is not "English" however, the QWERTY keyboard was developed based on typing English (to slow the typist down actually) and therefore I call it an English keyboard.
It certainly wasn't developed with Chinese in mind.
Further, having lived in China, I do know that Chinese is not merely pictograms. Neither was ancient Egyptian, which is why the Rosetta Stone came in so handy.
However, from my point of view, it would be a bitch to have to learn Chinese Characters and then also learn several other forms of characters, as well as the Greco-Roman alphabet so that you could use a QWERTY keyboard.
I still think that is pretty damn remarkable. I certainly wouldn't want to have to learn to use a keyboard that had foreign symbols on it .... even understanding that I no longer look at my keyboard while I type, and as long as my fingers start out at the right place, the silly thing could be entirely blank and it wouldn't make any difference to me.
|
I know what you mean about it seeming strange that they use ABC's to make Chinese characters. However, the alphabet is not really that strange to them because most people educated in China in the last 20ish years (it's been part of the official curriculum since 1950, but i don't know how faithfully this was implemented before 1980) learn the alphabet as part of Chinese phonetics. Also, education in English language begins in junior high officially, although I have seen children who are beginning to learn some basic English words as early as preschool. So it's not as strange for them to use the alphabet as it is for the average American using foreign characters.
I think Chinese did begin as pictographs, but that was a loooong time ago and there's not much relationship anymore. *I* make them into pictures because it helps me remember, and it drives my (Chinese) husband crazy.