Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
A very interesting article on the difficulty of Chinese... or, rather, Chinese characters for the most part:
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard
Some of it is insightful, some of it is... well, to me less than brilliant. But all of it is a very interesting read. And while I do not agree with all the interpretation, I've no doubt that the facts tendered by the writer are accurate.
- Ahi |
I think the whole essay is an attempt at presenting the matter in a humorous way. He is correct about classical Chinese, though. I downloaded a copy of the 8th century 紅樓夢 to my Sony reader for my wife (who once taught Chinese history and Chinese linguistics) and even for her it is a very difficult excercise. I recognize every character but still rarely have any idea what the author is talking about, hehehe. Then again my favorite German book is from the 17th century and every German needs a dictionary to read it, too.