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China doesn't have one language. Chinese is a family of languages as diverse as the Romance languages. This has actually been the primary reason that Chinese sc
by madhadron 8y ago
China doesn't have one language. Chinese is a family of languages as diverse as the Romance languages. This has actually been the primary reason that Chinese scholars have failed to replace their current writing system despite trying for a hundred fifty years. Imagine Italians, French, and Spanish speakers all trying to agree on a single written form of a language when they can't acknowledge that they're speaking different languages.
- mc32 8y agoI understand that; however, with respect to reading, they practically have one language and additionally, Mandarin (Beijing dialect) is taught nationwide and is a strict requirement.
- bpicolo 8y ago> About 30 percent of China's 1.3 billion population, 400 million people, can't communicate in Mandarin
- zhengyi13 8y agoWhen I traveled briefly in Yunnan, down in Xishuangbanna, I frequently ran into folk where I, as a white foreigner with only 4 years of study under my belt, spoke Mandarin more fluently than they did - and this included people who were nominally Han, not one of the 50-odd ethnic minorities down there. I'm not sure requirements can be said to be strict when the locals will tell you to your face that the mountains are high and the emperor far away.