Here is an article from today's newspapers, it got me thinking. I didn't think much about it when I was learning Chinese way back when. We may have frowned upon this complex handwriting system that our ancestors had invented, developed at one time or another. Little did we realize, we were set out to learn one of the most difficult languages the day we were born. If anything, we have our ancestors to thank!
This article gives me the motivation to keep teaching my sons Chinese characters, even at one word a day.
Demise of handwriting signals low for countryIt was some 35 years ago that I said to some folks that one day the Chinese will be quite formidable. No one answered me and thought that perhaps I was a bit daft.
If someone would have asked me why I thought that, I would have replied: their handwriting. It is beautiful, difficult to learn, and it has to be memorized -- and that makes the Chinese more intelligent, just as handwriting makes us. And what are we doing? We are being dumbed down by not memorizing multiplication tables, by not reading some of the classics and by not using our small muscles and eyes to coordinate writing skills.
Teaching has been dumbed down, and our children and our whole country will suffer for it.
source:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110720/OPINION01/107200312/Demise-handwriting-signals-low-country?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s
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