Quote:
Originally Posted by ProDigit
At least, I've been able to learn 3 languages before the age of 18, rather than becoming 30 something before I fully mastered one language.
I agree that any language can become so complex as you want it to be,and that one can study poetry and stuff many years after one graduates. But I certainly hope that Chinese kids at the age of 7 can write just about anything they can talk about using a keyboard?
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This was awhile ago, but I'd like to respond to it anyway. Chinese people are considered to have mastered the essential vocabulary when the graduate from high school. Though they are still learning how to write characters in high school, I don't think it's much different than high school students in the US learning new vocabulary words. The only difference is that in China whenever you learn a new word you have to learn how to write it. Instead of having spelling tests, they have tests on how to write the characters. OMHO I think the complexity of English grammar balances out the complexity of the Chinese writing system.
Because Chinese has so many homonyms it would be impossible to replace it with pinyin. But the greater challenge is that China (the mainland in particular) is very ethnocentric and is unlikely to give up Hanzi, which is a central part of it's identity. I can't remember who said so, but someone said that China's cultural persona is a reflection of the state of it's language, which is something I very much agree with. Furthermore, there's no chance (again, OMHO) that China will give up Hanzi for a writing system developed abroad...and in this case, abroad would include Taiwan.
It's related to the topic of non-Chinese people writing books about "the evils of kanji/hanzi." Ethnocentrism tells the Chinese that "no matter how well educated you are, you can't really grasp our language. The fact that you are writing this book is proof that you don't understand." It's not logical, I know. The other reason books about Chinese by non-Chinese might be less well received is, well, you wouldn't want someone to come into your house and tell you how to raise your kids, would you? Changes to Chinese on the mainland will have to originate on the mainland to be accepted.