3 ms·
But do you believe it's the same for young students who have tons of free time over the space of many years? I'm not sure your personal experience dictates an a
by WilliamEdward 8y ago
But do you believe it's the same for young students who have tons of free time over the space of many years? I'm not sure your personal experience dictates an absolute about this situation. I was forced to learn an extremely niche language in school; even learning the basics of chinese would have been more useful.
- crazygringo 8y agoI do. There's actually a very plausible theory that Chinese economic development is harmed by the sheer number of hours schoolchildren spend memorizing characters rather than conceptual learning -- that moving to a phonetic alphabet would be a huge boost in terms of overall learning. (This isn't a Western argument, it's a Chinese argument for phoneticization which is still mostly opposed by the population.) Young students don't have "tons of free time" -- their school time is spent on something, and if they're memorizing Chinese characters, then there are necessarily other skills that will be less developed.
- chillacy 8y agoMost of those arguments were made when China was 3rd world, it’ll get harder to sell that each passing year. Also that’s a great argument to simplify English as well, but few seem thrilled about that idea.