Posted on 01/29/2006 4:43:03 PM PST by Dick Bachert
Just caught a network news segment on how the Chicago government schools – at the alleged urging of parents – are teaching kids there CHINESE, a language having 3 gazillion unique GRAPHIC – as opposed to our 26 alphabetical – characters and 4 or so basic SOUNDS!
They claim they’re doing this so our kids can COMPETE with the Chinese – most of whom are busy learning a much easier language: ENGLISH!!
I think teaching American kids Chinese is wonderful. 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!
Latin borrowed the concept, but did not implement it perfectly.
Hope they can read "Brown Spots on the Wall" by Hu Flung Poo.
"40 characters"? I don't think so.
I did not know that!
I'm sorta an amateur etymology geek that loves to learn the origin of words, and their prefixes/suffixes
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.
She probably hasn't been TOLD what she thinks yet.
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.
They taught Russian in the high school I attended back in the 70's.
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.
"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?
Huh? Its there are only 214 Chinese "radicals" -- that can be combined in a myriad of different combinations.
Saussure's Cours is not a bad read.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not 40 characters. ~40 phonetic sounds.
Thousands of characters.
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