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The end of Hanzi/Kanji? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 1 of 66 28 October 2010 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
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It seems that forgetting how to write Hanzi/Kanji is no longer a problem which faces the foreign learner. 'Character amnesia' is a growing problem in China and Japan among young people, now used to using alphabet based input systems on mobiles and computers. There is even a suggestion this could be the beginning of the end for Chinese characters.
Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6295 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 2 of 66 28 October 2010 at 8:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I see you are studying Mandarin. Put a little effort into learning how to write the characters and you can enjoy mocking the misguided youth of today. :-)
I don't feel quite as bad about forgetting how to write characters. It seems lots of people have this problem. Practice, practice. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Yashinka Diglot Pro Member SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 29 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese, German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 66 28 October 2010 at 11:43am | IP Logged | ||
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It would be such a shame if that were to happen, kanji gives an insight into a strong culture with pride, and the
system in itself is quite logical and when you get used to it, enjoyable to read, can't say that much about writing just yet, but it sure is going to give me an opportunity to practice patience and maybe awake the artist in me :) sorry if I went off-topic, just felt like sharing my thoughts. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Segata Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5172 days ago 64 posts - 125 votes Speaks: German*, Japanese, English Studies: Korean, Esperanto | Message 4 of 66 28 October 2010 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually, if what I remember is accurate, there is even a trend towards writing more words in kanji.. in online based media, that is.
Also I highly doubt Chinese characters are going anywhere anytime soon. I cannot speak for Mandarin, but Japanese written entirely in kana is nothing short of a mess. Well, reading is no problem for most people anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zamie Groupie Australia Joined 5254 days ago 83 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 66 28 October 2010 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't get your hopes up, that's never going to happen in your life time ):
5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 6 of 66 28 October 2010 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, it's true. There were turbulent times (early modern era until 1950s) when a number of Japanese and Chinese intellectuals were in favor of doing away with Chinese characters. Now there is hardly anyone who wants to do away with Chinese characters. This year, the number of general use kanji is being increased by around 200 characters. People have serious trouble remembering how to handwrite Chinese characters because there are so few situations where people need to handwrite these days. In fact, people can recognize and read Chinese characters today better than ever thanks to the success of mass education. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6851 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 7 of 66 28 October 2010 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know how many times I've seen people speculate that characters might fall out of use. It. Will. Not. Happen. It's been discussed to death, but it almost always seems to come from Westerners. You'll pretty much never see such talk from Chinese or Japanese people. In fact, there is a movement right now in mainland China to return to traditional characters, at least partly. You can't get rid of characters without significantly altering the way the language is used.
Not to mention that I wouldn't give too much thought to any article which claims that kanji are "similar to Chinese characters." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5833 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 8 of 66 28 October 2010 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't personally think hanzi or kanji will be abolished either. I chose The title of the thread to reflect what the author stated in the article:
'the phenomenon, dubbed "character amnesia", is widespread across China, causing young Chinese to fear for the future of their ancient writing system.' What I find more interesting in the article is how technology has affected people's ability to handwrite the characters. When I asked my Chinese teacher once, whether Chinese people often forgot how to write Hanzi her answer was an emphatic and unambiguous no. I now know this isn't the case and it's comforting to know as I struggle to learn and retain Hanzi. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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