Is it wrong to the young students? (誤 人 子 弟)!
Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 9:05 am
The following is an issue discussed at Yahoo!Answers.
Question:
For a few weeks, I have been looking into the issue of learning Chinese as the second language. I have investigated the following issues.
1. Chinese (especially the written) is so damn hard, and this is a universal consensus. There are thousands sites discussing this topic.
2. One young American claimed "Mastering Chinese Written Language in 90 days!"
I have searched the web. I found that site which provides good supporting info for his claim, such as,
a. It was done openly, in front of many newspaper and TV reports.
b. It was reviewed by Taiwan government.
c. It was reviewed by many American universities.
d. I cannot find any negative report on it on web.
e. With the key word "Chinese etymology", it is on the first page on many search engines.
3. Trying to learn that methodology from universities, I cannot find any university which teaches that methodology.
Question --- if it is a proven methodology (not negated thus far), why is it not used by educators? Why let the young students keep doing the old way and face the lessons as the damn hard subject.
Additional Details:
Jeffrey said, "Just because one person could do it, doesn't mean it's a proven method for the masses. There's other factors, like maybe he was a savant and had perfect memory so that he only had to look at the character once and he could remember the strokes, the meaning and pronunciation."
This was the view of Dr. Chris Golston (Chairman of Linguistics Department, California State University at Fresno). Then, the Provost, Dr. Jeri Echeverria, made apology on that view on the behave of the university. Those documents are available at
http://www.chineseetymology.com/response.php
Jeffrey said, "Did it say how he learned? ... Maybe he doesn't quite know how to explain what his methodology was and the professors don't know how to replicate it."
The key of that claim is all about the methodology which is discussed at
http://www.chinese-etymology.com/exhibite.php
Answers:
From Seeker:
Chinese writing is based on simplify art representation of picture, and combination of those picture. If you find a better way of writing those character, I think people should change it, not stuck in stone age.
From Jeffrey:
Just because one person could do it, doesn't mean it's a proven method for the masses. There's other factors, like maybe he was a savant and had perfect memory so that he only had to look at the character once and he could remember the strokes, the meaning and pronunciation. Did it say how he learned? Did he have a knack for learning other languages? Maybe he doesn't quite know how to explain what his methodology was and the professors don't know how to replicate it.
From Maxijun:
To be honest, Chinese is a one of the most difficult language in the world. But it is not so difficult that you can not learn it! As a native Chinese, I think Chinese can be conquered when you learn it systematically and use it in daily life.
Note: the Yahoo url on this is
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 025AA8jm9H
What is your opinion on this?
Question:
For a few weeks, I have been looking into the issue of learning Chinese as the second language. I have investigated the following issues.
1. Chinese (especially the written) is so damn hard, and this is a universal consensus. There are thousands sites discussing this topic.
2. One young American claimed "Mastering Chinese Written Language in 90 days!"
I have searched the web. I found that site which provides good supporting info for his claim, such as,
a. It was done openly, in front of many newspaper and TV reports.
b. It was reviewed by Taiwan government.
c. It was reviewed by many American universities.
d. I cannot find any negative report on it on web.
e. With the key word "Chinese etymology", it is on the first page on many search engines.
3. Trying to learn that methodology from universities, I cannot find any university which teaches that methodology.
Question --- if it is a proven methodology (not negated thus far), why is it not used by educators? Why let the young students keep doing the old way and face the lessons as the damn hard subject.
Additional Details:
Jeffrey said, "Just because one person could do it, doesn't mean it's a proven method for the masses. There's other factors, like maybe he was a savant and had perfect memory so that he only had to look at the character once and he could remember the strokes, the meaning and pronunciation."
This was the view of Dr. Chris Golston (Chairman of Linguistics Department, California State University at Fresno). Then, the Provost, Dr. Jeri Echeverria, made apology on that view on the behave of the university. Those documents are available at
http://www.chineseetymology.com/response.php
Jeffrey said, "Did it say how he learned? ... Maybe he doesn't quite know how to explain what his methodology was and the professors don't know how to replicate it."
The key of that claim is all about the methodology which is discussed at
http://www.chinese-etymology.com/exhibite.php
Answers:
From Seeker:
Chinese writing is based on simplify art representation of picture, and combination of those picture. If you find a better way of writing those character, I think people should change it, not stuck in stone age.
From Jeffrey:
Just because one person could do it, doesn't mean it's a proven method for the masses. There's other factors, like maybe he was a savant and had perfect memory so that he only had to look at the character once and he could remember the strokes, the meaning and pronunciation. Did it say how he learned? Did he have a knack for learning other languages? Maybe he doesn't quite know how to explain what his methodology was and the professors don't know how to replicate it.
From Maxijun:
To be honest, Chinese is a one of the most difficult language in the world. But it is not so difficult that you can not learn it! As a native Chinese, I think Chinese can be conquered when you learn it systematically and use it in daily life.
Note: the Yahoo url on this is
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 025AA8jm9H
What is your opinion on this?