I think you and your chinese friends might be miscommunicating or misunderstanding what you are talking about. Part of the problem might be that the western con

I think you and your chinese friends might be miscommunicating or misunderstanding what you are talking about. Part of the problem might be that the western conception of what a language is, is wildly different from something like chinese. The situation is not really helped by western linguists trying to force shape chinese to fit their own notions and many chinese people just following along with whatever the west came up with due to the prevalence of western cultural standards.