Vocabulary 40 points
Do You Speak Chinese?
Man: Chinese is becoming part of the curriculum for more and more pupils in the UK. But what makes students choose to study Chinese rather than European languages like French or German?
The truth is that a lot of the time, it’s the parents who convince the students to do it. Many of them want their children to learn Chinese because they see it as the international business language of the future. They hope it will help their kids find a job when they grow up. But after the students begin, they are usually pretty enthusiastic, too. Most of the students are really curious about Chinese culture.
Chinese is predicted to become the second most popular foreign language learned in UK schools. It is already studied by more children than German or Russian. Only French and Spanish are more popular. Students who want to, can actually take an exam in Chinese today. There was a lot of interest when the exam was first introduced – until people understood how difficult it was. The exam was designed for people who grew up speaking Chinese but it is extremely difficult for teenagers or adults who are learning the language.
The fact is that Chinese is a difficult language. Even Chinese people find it hard to learn – in fact, it takes Chinese children two years longer than British kids to learn to read and write. This is because the writing system in Chinese is so complicated.
Instead of letters, Chinese has got symbols – which are called characters. In the English alphabet, there are only 26 letters but there are about 60,000 characters in Chinese! Fortunately, you don’t need to know them all – you only need to know around 5,000 to be able to read and write about most things.
But it’s not just reading and writing in Chinese that’s hard. Chinese pronunciation is also very difficult for people from countries in the West like the UK, France or Spain. That’s because each word can be said in four different ways. Each pronunciation means something different! Take the word Ma, for example. It means “mother” when you say it one way, but if you get the pronunciation wrong, you could end up saying “horse”!
Luckily, though, Chinese grammar is not nearly as complicated as the grammar of many European languages. For example, there are no verb tenses, no relative clauses, no singular or plural, which is why English grammar is so hard for Chinese people to learn!
Another interesting fact about Chinese is that it uses a part of the brain that most European languages don’t use. This means that people who find a language like French hard to learn, might find Chinese easy! Of course, like all languages, it is best to start learning Chinese when you’re young. Young children usually enjoy Chinese. It’s a very musical language, so speaking Chinese is almost like singing for them. Children also think it’s fun to draw the different characters and they learn pronunciation much more quickly than older students and adults. It’s a pity that no primary schools teach Chinese!
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