User Comments - changye

Posted on: Pay Verbs

Hi bababardwan

In addition to zhou_rui's nice explanation, let me show you more causes of the production of multi-reading characters.

(1) 文白异读 Some characters have two readings, (a) one is formal, and (b) other is colloquial, and in any case they have the same meaning. For example, 薄 (a) bo2 (b) bao2, 剥 (a) bo1 (b) bao1.

(2) 方言的影响 For example, 尿 (niao4) is a standard reading, and 尿 (sui1) is a dialect reading. Both have the same meaning and are listed in a modern dictionary. The same is true for 巷 （xiang4） and 巷 (hang4).

(3) Mispronunciations mainly caused by a phonetic part.

Just for the record, theoretically speaking, Japanese anime 《攻壳机动队/Ghost in the Shell》 is read as "gong1qiao4 ji1dong4dui4", but not "gong1ke2 ji1dong4dui4". 壳 is a 多音字, which has a formal reading "qial4" and a colloquial reading "ke2". That said, I don't know how Chinese guys actually read the title.

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Hi willbicocs

Thanks a lot for your to-the-point comment.

I'd completely forgotten about foreign learners of Japanese, who are eligible for participating "fast reading competition". They generally have the same learning experiences both in reading kana-only texts and kanji-mixed texts, specially at the early stage of learning Japanese.

As you said above, reading loan words written in katakana are a little difficult even for native Japanese to read. And the same is true for loan words in Mandarin. They are just long, because they usually have more syllables than their counterparts in foreign languages do.

Incidentally, did you know that governmental documents were mainly written in kanji and katakana (not hiragana) in Japan before the war? I hear that some law texts are still written that way. I'm glad I'm not a lawyer, hehe.

Posted on: Asking for a Phone Number

Hi go_manly

You don't need to use the character 幺 even if you pronounce it as "yao". By the same token, "幺" is not used for hotel room numbers shown on doors, for example.

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Hi daniel70 and bababardwan

So, it's relatively easy for Japanese guys to find out a target e-mail out of tons of spam mails by glancing over mail titles, for example. Once I did this in front of one of my Korean-Chinese friends. He just said to me then, "Why can you do that so quickly?".

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

へへ、「変換ミス」ということにしておいて下さいな。　

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Hi daniel70

I'm afraid the test is not feasible even in Japan as finding a guy who is skilled in reading kana-only scripts is extremely difficult. Having said that, I assure you that using Chinese characters definitely makes reading fast, at least, in the case of the Japanese language, which is mainly because key words/proper nouns are usually written in Chinese characters in Japanese. So, You can easily skim Japanese texts by scanning only Chinese characters. Below is an example.

日本語の文章では、重要な言葉や固有名詞が漢字で書かれることが多く、そのため漢字の部分だけを拾い読みすることで文章の大意を把握することができ、結果的に早く読むことが可能になります。

にほんごのぶんしょうでは、じゅうようなことばやこゆうめいしがかんじでかかれることがおおく、そのためかんじのぶぶんだけをひろいよみすることでぶんしょうのたいいをはあくすることができ、けっかてきにはやくよむことがかのうになります。

And this is the very reason I think Korean people shouldn't have abandoned using Chinese characters.

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Hi simon

You're forgetting the difference in physical length between hanzi and pinyin.

去年年底，河南省文物局在北京举行发布会，宣布河南安阳西高穴发掘的东汉大墓为魏武王曹操高陵。消息公布后，引起业界专家学者、社会公众及媒体的质疑。

Qunian niandi henansheng wenwuju zai Beijing juxing fabuhui, xuanbu henan anyang xigaoxue fajue de donghan damu wei weiwuwang caocao gaoling. xiaoxi gongbu hou, yinqi yejie zhuanjia xuezhe, shehui gongzhong ji meiti de zhiyi.

“Context" does not always work well, especially when you read something that is difficult to understand or not familiar with you (including bad writings), that is to say, writings that contains a lot of rarely used words, new concepts and technical terms. The same is true for writings written in Hanzi, but at least hanzi often give you a hint about words you come across for the first time.

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Hi simon

Even a guy who is skilled in reading pinyin can't beat a guy who is skilled in reading Chinese characters at a speed-reading contest, if they have the same cleverness. A Chinese character gives you a sound, a tone, and a meaning at the same time, but pinyin does not. More exactly speaking, you don't have to care about tones/sounds when reading something written in Chinese characters. In the case of pinyin, sometimes you need to figure out a meaning of a homonym from the context.

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Hi bodawei

I think the pupils could write pinyin better when they were first graders. In a sense, we foreign learners of Mandarin might be able to write pinyin more correctly than native Chinese do, hehe. Actually, pinyin is originally for children, but not for adults. That said, the situation has already changed because of the use of computers. Like it or not, the fourth graders will have to learn pinyin "again" when they start using a computer.

Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin

Chinese people speak Mandarin without showing Chinese characters with each other, but there is no difficulty communicating. In conversation, tones work very effectively, and people usually don't use difficult and rarely-used words and phrases.

On the other hand, pinyin alone is not sufficient when writing and reading. Tone marks don't work effectively in this case, and there are more difficult words used in writings than in conversation. It's obvious "pinyin only" makes reading rather cumbersome. You can read Chinese written in Hanzi much faster than pinyin-only Mandarin.

I heard somewhere that people in Korea and Vietnam, who abandoned Chinese characters after the war, tend to avoid using difficult words because of the disuse of Chinese characters. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.