why chinese is harder

The two main forms we know language to exist in is in the written and the spoken forms. In the English language, these two are tied closely together. The written word forms in English usually attempt to replicate the sound of its spoken form, via alphabets. The complications only come when you start considering words that root from foreign language. Other than that, English is a relatively easy language. Once you grasp a basic sense of phonics, reading and writing becomes part of the spoken word.

However, the Chinese language is quite different. The written form of Chinese has almost no indication of its pronunciation through any from of phonics. Rather, the word in its written and spoken form are quite independant of each other. The Chinese characters have more of a pictorial value rather than phonetical. Learning a single Chinese word becomes a double-fold naming exercise. The spoken form, characterising the written word with its own sound, and the word itself, communicating a meaning. This is usually the biggest problem of all, at least for me. Beyond that, the Chinese grammar is probably simpler and much more consistant than that of the English language. Chinese is probably a much clearer medium of communication too. It employs cheng yu, phrases of only four words that can convey what would probably take at least a complete sentence in English quite compactly. It's definitely a language much richer in historical and cultural value, which probably takes a bit of history lessons and story-telling sessions to get a rough grasp on.

Sadly, the Chinese today has been heavily watered down, which, ironically, doesn't quite make things any easier. It probably even harder to learn tha language now that it has been, and still is being, pulled further from its own history...


And I still suck at it, of course.