Chicago school kids learn CHINESE!

Vanity ^ | 1-29-2006 | Dick Bachert

[RightWhale]

Latin borrowed the concept, but did not implement it perfectly.

[toddlintown]

Hope they can read "Brown Spots on the Wall" by Hu Flung Poo.

[solitas]

Chinese has 40 characters and is one of the easiest languages there is. English is considered difficult.

"40 characters"? I don't think so.

[bikepacker67]

Really?

I did not know that!

I'm sorta an amateur etymology geek that loves to learn the origin of words, and their prefixes/suffixes

[RightWhale]

Can you sound like those Japanese military characters in old movies that talk way back in the throat? You just know they are tough and won't tolerate any backtalk.

[solitas]

She probably hasn't been TOLD what she thinks yet.

[Clintonfatigued]

With the Whole Word method of reading instruction, kids are already being taught English as if it were Chinese. So teaching them Chinese is the next logical step.

[Eagle Eye]

They taught Russian in the high school I attended back in the 70's.

[RightWhale]

A Chinese person explained it. The ideographs are made up of about 40 smaller characters. True, pronunciation from the written word is a different matter. But, when we read English words we pretty much deal with them as units, which is not really so different.

[haroldeveryman]

"These kids will then be able to explain why they are ignorant of biology, physics, math, basic science, etc. – IN CHINESE because their local educrats stole time from THOSE vital skills necessary for us to compete with the Europeans and the Chinese – to teach them CHINESE!"

You don't get it. It's so the kids can understand the science teacher. Where in the U.S. are they going to find "qualified" high school teachers who know anything about biology, physics, math, or basic science?

[MrsEmmaPeel]

3 gazillion unique GRAPHIC

Huh? Its there are only 214 Chinese "radicals" -- that can be combined in a myriad of different combinations.

[RightWhale]

Saussure's Cours is not a bad read.

[cowtowney]

The world is getting smaller and smart young capitalists will be learning new languages so they can think and act globally. I learned french as a youngster. What a joke. I wish I had learned Spanish or Chinese.

[OXENinFLA]

Proving yet again that .......I WAS RIGHT TO MOVE OUTA THAT F'ED UP STATE!

[Brilliant]

Not a bad idea, actually. Knowledge of foreign languages is in high demand right now. Foreign language majors have a leg up when they graduate from college.

I'm sure it will be a lot more useful than Spanish. Too many people speak that.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Do the math, learning Chinese is the way to go.

Guess what? Chinese kids are learning english, they will have the skills necessary in the future workforce.

Bitching about things and not moving forward only ensures that you get left behind.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I studies Chinese in high school, and a it more in college. It was fun, interesting, and a good learning experience.

If you think simplicity is the hallmark of a good language, be aware that Chinese has only one-syllable words, each starting with one of 21 consonants, and ending with one of 16 vowel sounds. Not all permutations are used. Each word may have one of 5 intonations (rising, falling, etc.)

The language has no verb tenses, no conjugation, no gender, and sentences are made into questions simply by the addition of a syllable at the end.

Incredibly simple.

You might not be able to sound out a word from the written characters (which are the same as they were millennia ago), but the words are easy to learn, and there is no real challenge to write them (except for the beneficial rigor of learning to achieve over expectations.)

Besides, the more free people who speak Chinese, the better the chances for freedom in China.

[RightWhale]

English readers should start with letters, maybe somewhat phonetic, but it quickly gets to word recognition. Letter order doesn't matter so much. If teh lterets aer jbelumd yuo cna slitl mkae it otu. Srot of.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Not 40 characters. ~40 phonetic sounds.

Thousands of characters.