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Westerners reading vs speaking Chinese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Elizabeth_rb Diglot Groupie United Kingdom polyglotintraining.b Joined 4637 days ago 54 posts - 84 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: GermanB1 | Message 9 of 9 12 July 2012 at 8:19pm | IP Logged |
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I have a couple of ideas on this topic - hope I don't repeat anyone too badly...=)
Having myself engaged with Mandarin for over 17 years now (studied very actively for about 6 of those, but using several times a week, or daily, at all other times as well), I can say that my speaking is better than my reading BUT a major reason for this could well be that, frankly, I'm a bit lazy when it comes to reading in any other language. I just don't put in the time and practice, despite always meaning to. So, I don't read as quickly as I would like to. It is more speed that I'm referring to here, as I can read a good number of characters just fine. Of course, the more complex script is an issue too (and I'll read simplified characters faster than traditional, owing to more exposure to simplified - my hubby is the other way around), but for me, the main issue is lack of practice. On the other side of the coin, I'm wondering how much the typical scenario of understanding more than you can produce might influence someone's reading being better than his/her speaking. Also, reading is (normally) correct, whereas speaking - even despite constant exposure to correct forms - can be eye-wateringly inaccurate. Having said that, I can see where Chinese can fall outside of the normal scenario at time as I know a few who've said that they feel they can produce more than they can understand. In short, who knows? I know where I am on the scale, so to speak, and I do find it hard to imagine that most people would be better at reading Chinese than speaking it as, again, I know several people with a decent level of spoken language, but who wouldn't know what to do with the most simple of characters. Interesting... Edited by Elizabeth_rb on 12 July 2012 at 8:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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