Xiaoning's Education Blog
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Chinese Characters – Simplified or Traditional
Chinese is already a difficult foreign language to learn, as Level IV compares with Level I Spanish and French. We make it even more complicated by talking about simplified or traditional characters.
Traditional characters are the original Chinese characters standardized since the 5th century in China, and they’re currently used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Simplified characters were introduced in the 1950s in mainland China and are used in China, Singapore and by the United Nations. People who come from or have lived or visited in either region seem to have strong feelings for which characters to use. They have endless good reasons why students should learn one version or the other. Traditional characters advocates say traditional characters represent Chinese culture, Chinese calligraphy can only look good with traditional characters, and if you learn the traditional version first, it will be easier to learn the simplified version later. Advocates of simplified characters say you should learn the version that most Chinese use. If you go to China, you see only simplified characters, and they’re much easier to learn. So who is right and whom we shall listen to? In my opinion, they both are right, but you still have to decide which version to learn. It really doesn’t matter which comes first or whether you learn only one. That’s because if you have a good foundation of either, you can learn both – even if you don’t master both. Why?
Do you know there are only “350 singly simplified characters, whose simplifications cannot be generalized to other characters” and only “132 simplified characters and 14 simplified radicals, which can all be generalized to other characters?” To learn more about this, please click here This means fewer than 500 Chinese characters actually have different forms among 5,000 characters that we use on a daily basis. And if you read Chinese daily and see both versions here and there, you can automatically read either of them. I am from mainland China and have learned only simplified characters, but I can read traditional characters without any problem, even though I cannot write them. Likewise, my suppliers in Taiwan and Hong Kong learned only traditional characters, but they have no problem reading my hand-written simplified characters. You may have heard some Chinese say that they cannot read simplified or traditional characters. I have to say, it is not that they can’t, it is that they don’t want to. If they want, they can!
I have also heard some teachers saying that we don’t need to teach Chinese characters, that Pinyin is enough for students to understand and speak Chinese. They say if students really need to know the characters, they can type Pinyin on the computer and pick the right ones. I am not sure I agree. Writing can help you memorize the characters, and if you only type Pinyin a few times and choose characters from the screen, how will you remember them? If you cannot recognize Chinese characters, you can’t even
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Endless Things to Say About Education
Just like any parent, I have endless things to say on the topic of education, specifically Chinese education. I am not an expert in either field but would like to share my experiences, thoughts, and knowledge with you. I also have many questions about these issues and hope to get answers from our readers.
First, everyone is aware of the importance that the Chinese place on their children’s education. I would like to share this article with you about a 5 year old girl’s education in Beijing. As you see in this article, unlike kids in the US who go to boarding schools beginning from middle school, it is a common practice for Chinese parents to send their children to such schools at a much younger age. Of course, not all the best schools are boarding schools, but this is a perfect example of the stress that Chinese parents place on their children regarding education. Nowadays, Chinese children not only spend about seven hours every day in school, but also about two hours finishing their homework. In addition, many children go to different classes to learn piano, swimming, karate (yes, not Kungfu) Olympics math, Oxford English, you name it, everything that can keep children learning, learning and learning! These kids are lucky if they can finish everything by 9 p.m. This routine is common to almost all children in cities across China. There is very little recreational time left for them.
When I was young, we also had to study very hard, with long school hours and lots of homework that consisted of endless math drills and Chinese character practice. But at least there were no piano, swimming, karate, Olympic math, and Oxford English classes, and of course, there was no TV either, so I had quite a lot of time to play games such as jump rope, Ping-Pong, badminton, hopscotch and more. Unfortunately, these days, I don’t see children in China playing such things anymore. They either study endless hours, or they play GameBoys and watch TV in their little spare time.
Having witnessed my son growing up in the American educational system, I often wonder which one is better and if we can combine the better parts of two educations. American education encourages children to learn not only from textbooks, classes and homework, but applies these methods in such a way that they can also be fun, engaging, creative and open-minded – all the things we have not yet learned in China. Yet, sometimes, I also wonder if all these fun activities can really build solid foundations in which children can grow up to be successful in the workplace and compete in a competitive global environment. Then I look at every advanced technology and innovations worldwide and notice that the majority of them are American-invented. So I really don’t know if I should push my son toward Chinese or American education. How will my son compete when he grows up if he doesn’t learn basic math skills
Monday, March 31, 2008
Introduction of ChinaSprout’s Blogs
I’ve been thinking about writing a blog for a long time, and finally now I have the chance to do it with our new website. In this blog, I’ll focus on Chinese culture, Chinese language education, and education in general. I believe these topics are of high interest to our audience and customers. I’ll also talk about how I started ChinaSprout, my life in China (more than 20 years ago), and childrens’ lives in contemporary China, since so many people ask me about that. I may also write about my buying trips in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as trade shows I attend across the country. I will also share my experiences with Chinese language education – a topic I deeply care about and am actively involved with as a mother, Chinese woman, and vendor.
I’ll also invite my editors, colleagues, and experts in various fields to write about related topics. We plan to include book reviews (not only the books we carry), author interviews, home-schooling, Chinese language, Chinese arts, and more. We will announce these blogs as soon as they are available on our new site.
Our blogs will also link the news and information about China, Chinese culture and Chinese language education. We’ll allow readers to post comments and will post them after reviews. I do hope readers will share their information, experiences, and expertise about China and especially Chinese language education.
If you have suggestions, please let me know!
Xiaoning
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