Chicago school kids learn CHINESE!

Vanity ^ | 1-29-2006 | Dick Bachert

[mhx]

Chinese solves that problem by making the written form of the word completely unrelated to anything about how it sounds.

[RightWhale]

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

[VadeRetro]

They're probably learning the Pin-Yin romanization, which uses the English alphabet. Does that assuage your worries?

[RightWhale]

Greek (classical) has the most phonetic alphabet ever.

[isom35]

they are learning the language of their future masters :)

[RightWhale]

making the written form of the word completely unrelated to anything about how it sounds.

Complaints continue about that defect in the English written language, and even more so in French.

[buccaneer81]

Think about this: KNOW THINE ENEMY.

[oolatec]

Geez... what's wrong with learning a different language? I only wish I had the option of something other than Spanish and French when I was in school.

[HereInTheHeartland]

"Yea, we don't want some of our kids learning Chinese because they might go forward and get a job with the CIA, Military, Big Business or some kind of other un-American occupation."

Thanks for stating the obvious.
It's hard enough being a conservative, I really hate when people give liberals free ammunition to make us look like out of touch bumblers.

[SuziQ]

Kids do bettr absorbing lanugages than us calcified oldsters.

Absolutely true. Kids are like sponges when they're young. It is much easier for them to learn foreign languages. I began taking Spanish when I was in the second grade, and even had a little French in the third grade. After seven years of Spanish, I had a breeze of a time in high school Spanish, and cruised through a Spanish minor in college.

[Alter Kaker]

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

As a non-native speaker, let me tell you that English is extremely difficult to learn. I've learned to speak a number of languages. Nothing for me is so hard as Mandarin -- I gave that up.

[voletti]

"Good, maybe they will do better with Chinese than they do with English!"

There's no way a kid can fail a written exam in chinese. All you've to do is scribble something that looks like a chinese character and you're through!

[steveo]

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

Unrelated but when I was in grade school many year ago [40+] my 4th grade teacher had us learn several Japanese phrases... Does that mean I'm turning Japanese, that I'm turning Japanese, I don't think so...

[bikepacker67]

Greek (classical) has the most phonetic alphabet ever.

Doesn't Latin as well?

That's a language I'd really like to learn. If nothing else, I could impress babes by posing as a lawyer...

[Alter Kaker]

Proving yet again that whom God would destroy, he first makes INSANE!!

I'm confused. Chinese is an extremely useful language to learn, and it is increasingly so. What's wrong with learning it? It'll give these kids a huge competitive edge in applying for all kinds of employment.

[Paul_Denton]

True, but some variations of Chinese are difficult too. There are anywhere from three (Manderin) to seven (Minan, better known as Taiwanese) tones. alhough spoken Manderin (I assume that is the dialect that this school teaches) is much easier than written.

[free_at_jsl.com]

I read somewhere a long time ago that the odds of a child attending a university more than doubled if they spoke more than one language. More education is never a bad thing. Learning Chinese could benefit OUR government too -- after all, the NSA needs people fluent in all languages.

JSL

[RightWhale]

Chinese is on my list, probably about fourth now. I am remaining optimistic on that one.

[Alter Kaker]

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

Out of curiosity, 40 characters? Not when I was learning it. Maybe they've downsized.

[Alter Kaker]

Out of curiosity, 40 characters? Not when I was learning it.

Or rather, not learning it.