Reading and writing traditional characters in China

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I wonder if the 1 percent using traditional characters are expats from Taiwan or Hong Kong.

近1%人仍用繁体字书写
http://www.sina.com.cn 2004年12月27日11:05 重庆商报

新华网消息国家语言文字工作委员会26日在京公布的一项调查结果显示，中国95.25%的人平时主要书写简化字，3.84%的人简化字和繁体字同时使用，而仍有0.92%的人坚持使用繁体字书写。

这项就中国语言文字使用情况所作的调查同时发现，在阅读繁体字书报方面，22.71%的人认为“基本没有困难”，35.98%的人认为“有些困难但凭猜测能读懂大概意思”，而有41.3%的人认为“困难很多”。在认读和拼写汉语拼音方面，表示“会的”占44.63%，“会一些”的占23.69%，“不会的”占31.68%。

自上世纪50年代以来，中国对部分汉字进行简化，现在推行、使用经简化、整理的规范汉字。 “中国语言文字使用情况调查”范围涉及除港澳台外的全国31个省、自治区、直辖市以及新疆生产建设兵团，调查样本量达16万多户、47万多人；在95%置信度下，比例数据的估计决定绝对误差低于0.35%。（来源：重庆商报）

Chinese character festival

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Taipei is going to host the “2004 Taipei Chinese character festival.” This begins with various exhibitions and children’s activities but will conclude with the International Academic Conference on Chinese Characters and Globalization, to be held January 28-30 at the National Library.

Accoring to Liao Hsien-hao (寥咸浩), the head of Taipei’s Cultural Affairs Bureau and one of the main people behind Taipei’s adoption of Hanyu Pinyin:

the most important task for the conference was to identify and discuss the threats facing the Chinese writing system. Scholars and professionals from various fields will discuss the status of Chinese characters in the “Confucian sphere of influence,” which extends throughout East and Southeast Asia. Although Japan is the only non-Chinese society that still uses Chinese characters in its writing system, both Korean and Vietnamese were written using Chinese (or Chinese-based) characters in the recent past.

What are the benefits or drawbacks of switching to Latin or phonetic scripts (as Korea and Vietnam) did or simplifying characters as China has? As the Chinese script that can be used to write very different languages, it has historically been a symbol of China’s will to unite and rule “all under heaven.” But in today’s very different world, is the use of this ancient script still practical or meaningful?

I suspect this conference is not going to be as probing as this article makes it sound. But I could be wrong. I’ll be out of the country then, so I won’t be able to find out in person.

Hangeul to replace Chinese characters in laws

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The Chinese characters that are mixed in with the present 759 laws will be revised into Hangeul from the Hangeul Day (Korean Alphabet Day) of next year at the earliest.

The government held a state council under the supervision of Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan at the Central Government Complex in Sejongro on December 21 and passed the “Special Measure Bill For Revising Law into Hangeul” that enforces the Chinese characters that are used in present laws to be replaced with Hangeul as a rule.

This reflects the reality of the difficulty in understanding the law due to the increase in the number of generations who did not learn Chinese characters during school education.

The government is planning to carry out this plan from the 559th anniversary Hangeul Day of 2005, after revising the Chinese characters into Hangeul collectively through this special measure.

super software?

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I keep seeing vague references to “ICT” software, whose boosters like to make claims such as the following: “Usually students take six years to master 2,500 characters. With ICT they can learn 2,000 characters in a year. With this they can spend less time learning Chinese and more time on other subjects like English, Music and Science. With ICT, six-year-olds can write essays within a month!”

While I believe computers can help people learn Chinese characters, that’s roughly 10 characters every school day. I just don’t believe that all of those would be learned and fully retained. Where are the scientific studies? Does anyone know anything more about this?

On the other hand, Hanyu Pinyin can most definitely be learned within a month. Once that is done, people, including six-year-olds, are limited in what they can write only by the extent of their vocabulary.

new translations from the Bible into Hakka

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Taiwan’s Bible Association recently released “Good News for the Hakka: Proverbs, Psalms and the Gospel According to John” in one volume. Association General Secretary Lai Chun-ming said, “This book makes use of the contemporary Hakka vernacular as it is spoken on the street. Insofar as it was possible the translation was made so as to put the Bible into an idiom that can easily be grasped and passed along.”

Mr. Lai said that the publication was aided by a donation from the Rev. Jerry Cole, a missionary from the Southern Baptist Convention. Of the 7,000 volumes published, Mr. Cole advance-purchased 4,000 for use in mission work. Remaining funding came through the Hakka Gospel Association and the Hakka Bible Translation Committee.

Rev. Peng Der-kuei, specialized minister for Hakka mission at Taipei’s Shuang-lien Presbyterian Church, said that the special features of this new volume include combined use of Chinese characters and Romanization accompanied by a preface in which the Romanization system for Hakkanese is clearly explained.

The Hakka Gospel Association has 2,000 volumes available for sale. Those wishing a copy can contact the group in Taiwan at 03 5945546.

source

Aborigines and personal names

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Twenty years ago a few young aboriginal men established Taiwan’s first organization dedicated to the rights of the aboriginal people….

Launched in the early 1980s, the movement aimed to empower aborigines and to heighten their awareness of self-identity. In the early stages, the movement urged indigenous people to use their aboriginal names in their original languages, instead of taking Chinese-language names.

Past rulers of the island tended to adopt an assimilation policy under which they tried to “refine” what they saw as the “savage” aborigines. Both the Japanese colonial government and the subsequent Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government respectively required aborigines to adopt Japanese and Chinese names.

Over the years, numerous activists attempted to change their names from Chinese language to aboriginal, but were refused by the Household Registration Administration. It was not until 1995, after continuous lobbying by activists, that the government allowed the use of aboriginal names, but still insisted that Chinese characters must be used….

Voyu Yakumangana, chairman of Association for Taiwan Indigenous People’s Policies, who also has a Chinese name, Yang Chi-wei, said the rectification campaign now aims to have all aborigines proudly claim their names in their original languages….

Payen Talu (巴燕達魯), one of the initiators of the rights movement twenty years ago, is however not totally satisfied with the progress being made.

“So far, less than one percent of the total aboriginal population have changed their names from Chinese to their aboriginal languages,” Payen said, though he allowed that there have been some gains, such as acceptance for the “aborigine” identity.

“Most indigenous people now would proudly admit that they are aborigine, which is very different compared to 20 years ago when the term “aborigine” carried a stigma in the wider society,” Payen said.

“But when you see most aboriginal politicians today still using their Chinese names, then you know that the movement still has a long way to go,” he added.

source

HK Putonghua and Pinyin test

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The Examinations & Assessment Authority released today the results of the September Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers. Some 29% of English teachers have acquired the basic requirement in writing, with 43% and 64% of candidates attaining the basic requirement in English speaking and listening.

For Putonghua papers, 43% of teacher candidates attained the basic requirement in listening and recognition, 63% in Pinyin and 42% in speaking.

It’s interesting that people do so much better in Pinyin than in not only listening and recognition but also speaking. Moreover, compare those with the figures for English. Hmm.

source

reading skills declining in Japan

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From an editorial in the Asahi Shimbun:

The results of a test by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development should leave no doubt that Japanese children’s ability to read, think logically and express their thoughts is declining rapidly.

The survey was conducted last year on 15-year-olds in 41 countries and areas. It was designed to measure students’ practical ability to think independently, deal with various real problems in the world and build healthy relations with others. Since it was not a pure scholarship test, students were allowed to use calculators in solving mathematical problems.

Japanese students’ performance in the test to gauge reading skills has dropped to 14th from eighth in the previous survey in 2000. Japan registered the largest drop in scores for reading among all participating countries….

The report on the future of Japanese language education submitted in February by the Council for Cultural Affairs to the minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology reflected a strong sense of crisis about the situation….

The new curriculum guidelines implemented in the year that started in April 2002 reduced the amount of time for teaching Japanese at school. The number of children who don’t read books at all has been rising steadily.

The council report urged the government to enhance Japanese language education and provide more incentives for children to read books. As a step to achieve this goal, the report called for doubling the number of Chinese characters children learn at elementary school to cover most of the 1,945 designated by the government as basic characters. It is a very bold proposal that openly challenges the education ministry’s controversial policy of promoting “pressure-free” education….

Japanese children performed relatively well in dealing with selection problems in the OECD test but did poorly in essay questions. This should be regarded as a warning about university entrance exams in Japan.

Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward is planning to seek government approval for establishing itself as a special deregulation zone for Japanese language education. The initiative is designed to help children develop the ability to think deeply in Japanese. The plan would reduce the number of classes for comprehensive study and everyday life skills to increase the hours for Japanese language education.

Setagaya’s initiative is conspicuous amid local governments racing to create a special zone for English education. Setagaya’s sense of urgency should find a wide resonance in this country.