ah. Chinese has only one writing system (well, technically two, thanks to the Cultural Revolution, but the simplified character system is a bastardization of the traditional system and erases much of the history behind each word- why yes, i am bitter and have a thing about memory/history, why do you ask? :P), but the words are pronounced differently in each dialect- Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.- although the meanings remain the same. quite ingenious, really. :D my family speaks Mandarin, and the older generations speak Taiwanese, which i understand only bits and pieces of- my parents talk to each other in Taiwanese when they don't want us to know what they're talking about, but even though i can often decipher the gist of their conversations, it's a comprehension that doesn't quite involve the understanding of what each individual word means, if that makes any sense. *g* i don't know how to explain it beyond that.
i have tried to pick it up again, but i had to give up both times because of all the other demands on my time- the AP track in high school and the biochem major requirements in college had to take priority in terms of Grand Learning Plans. learning Chinese takes a lot of work and memorization- each word has a different character, sometimes characters can be read one way (meaning and pronunciation both) in one context and a different way in another, stroke orders are important, the sheer amounts of vocabulary- yeah. there was just no room in my head/no time in my schedule to learn Chinese and, say, biology, chemistry, physics, etc. at the same time.
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Date: 2009-04-07 02:41 pm (UTC)i have tried to pick it up again, but i had to give up both times because of all the other demands on my time- the AP track in high school and the biochem major requirements in college had to take priority in terms of Grand Learning Plans. learning Chinese takes a lot of work and memorization- each word has a different character, sometimes characters can be read one way (meaning and pronunciation both) in one context and a different way in another, stroke orders are important, the sheer amounts of vocabulary- yeah. there was just no room in my head/no time in my schedule to learn Chinese and, say, biology, chemistry, physics, etc. at the same time.