Chinese Study Motivation
Hey kids, if you study really hard, one day you might be able to make sense of this ludicrous story:
I came across it at OMG Soy Sauce: This is Why Chinese is so Hard.
Geek System has more info about it here: Chinese Riddle in Which Every Syllable Is Pronounced /Shi/.
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That’s too extreme an example. It was written by a Chinese linguist when some scholar suggested abolish Chinese character and use roman alphabets as substitute. Above is a brilliant counter-example, isn’t it? Chinese language without Chinese characters is impossible.
It is a brilliant counter example indeed :)
I wonder how many Chinese would not be at least a little confused on hearing that extract read aloud, without the ability to see the characters?
I agree too that it’s good point to show that pinyin is not enough to write Chinese. But like Jia said, in normal life Chinese isn’t that difficult. Hmm, maybe I should do a test and read this aloud to some of my Chinese friends and ask what he/she understood.
Haha, let me know how that goes! I would do the same, but I don’t think I’d be able to emphasize the right words – each utterance would be equal in length and volume, lacking pauses or speed changes that I’m sure would contribute to the potential for understanding…