我飞回重庆最近，当我阅读中国非常令人沮丧的问题提醒。 有一个机舱电视上的电影，它有一个特殊性：它进行字幕的中文和英文并行，两线相若的字体在屏幕的底部，。

当我看到我一直强迫我的眼睛中文字幕坚持以行使我的阅读（声音），但它是毫无意义的。 之前，我已经读完了中国每一次，我已经知道该行的含义反正。 英语的话，似乎传递自己的意思， 即使我不看他们。

阅读中国

我们已经谈到，去年有关的问题， 读“中国功能。 它是先进的中国学生非常重要，因为超过一定程度的进展，在很大程度上取决于这种能力。 许多外国人都能够读取缓慢，甚至做光标字典的帮助下，与中国文字的翻译。 但读取功能， 在我的定义 ，是一个完全不同的事情。 这意味着能够阅读各种快速和可靠的平均本地一般文本。 点击继续»

这个星期，我很少有时间做语言后，部分原因是因为我一直忙着写一个简短的故事 ，一方面是因为我已经讨论了有关在其他博客的语言很好的协议。 我利用这一点，跟我在上海最后的意见后，我们上了长时间的讨论后， 吴博客 。

讨论开始对语言学习网站无关的评论。 但真的让我热起来是痛苦地意识到，许多上海扬声器 - 或者更确切地说吴扬声器 - 不仅不保护自己的美丽的语言，但它们实际上是积极纯粹的无知摧毁其深厚的文化底蕴。

如果你已经阅读我一会儿，你可能知道，我觉得很强烈的有关语言，特别是关于消失的。 也许部分原因是，我从一个文化的地方，我们花了相当数量的资源，以促进少数民族语言，这么小的和无用的，它有大约1％的上海扬声器。 也许是愚蠢的，但它是我们的语言。 点击继续»

今天我只想评论中文标点符号的神秘世界。 这是迷人的领域，在这些时候，大家指责的中国歧视外国符号。 事实上，有一个外国符号，在现代中国几乎每一句话：“点，逗号，其余所有的标点符号标志。

在任何语言是很自然的，当中国决定采取这些迹象，以澄清自己的脚本，他们为使用他们自己的规则。 有标点符号的例子很多，显然是在中国和西方语言相同，但实际上有不同的含义和用途。 这是不是该职位的主要点，但我会稍微停止，我觉得很有趣的例子之一。

叹息大关

出于某种原因，感叹号了对中国翻译成叹号，就是叹标志，在西方被称为（）。 此叹字符最常用的今天在叹气表达，其含义是惊呼叹息或喝彩 ​​。 我的理论是，这是谁写的每第二句“！”标志的中国网民的背后，怪癖的原因。 继续»

注：对于那些已经在过去的3天里，我的读者，这是一个关于后谷歌BUZZ已经入侵世界的邮箱这个星期，新的Google服务。

但别紧张，保持几秒钟之内，不要急于GFW的测试工具 ，这尚未发生。 我只是想成为第一个公告，并让所有的功劳，因为我90％，谷歌Buzz将在一个星期内阻止。 我对冲的情况下，桂枝茯苓丸检查员太新的十年，他们的反应，白驹高余下的10％，比预期的慢一点。

你看，我讨厌打厄运博客，但是这只是中国工程今天。 博客我尊重，我听说一些反对意见，我指称，一厢情愿。 有没有办法谷歌BUZZ将继续开放，这里是为什么：

• gbuzz吸引非常快，一个比Twitter或Facebook在中国的用户数量较多，由于其使用的Gmail，这里比较流行的电子邮件服务。

• 谷歌Buzz病毒传播的潜力是很了不起的，中国使用互联网的方式非常吸引人。 在中国的流行，越来越远不是像开拓者更多评论中国博客罗伯特·斯考伯在第一个24小时的GBuzz 。

• 他们最近的争论与中国有关当局后，谷歌把HTTPS Gmail（和现在GBuzz），这意味着，桂枝茯苓丸不能看到的内容，在中国境内流动。 他们不能阻止特定的用户或关键字，他们也不能强迫一个Google的自我审查作为他们与Google.cn谷歌公司的技术和政治原因。

所以我们这里有什么是病毒大量传播的一种手段，完全失去了控制，并与潜在激怒中国当局可能仅次于大纪元。

一个实时仿真

对于那些仍然不同意我的说法，我用我的老工程的超级计算机，做一个即将发生的事件，从昨天开始，当大多数中国的Gmail用户访问到GBuzz实时仿真。 已经发生2月12日第4步骤：

第一步：GBuzz铺开在中国流行的博客，并在数小时内得到少数数百流意见。 讨论的第一个科目之一，是Buzz将是否被堵塞或不。

第二步：一些中国用户开始怯生生地测试与未修改漫骂和禁忌，如系统Caonima和Malagebi的。 兴奋：没有评论将被删除或封锁！

第三步： - 12h后，一些中国用户已经发送一个奇特的倾向越来越少穿的衣服，甚至冬季打回大陆硬淑女的美丽图片。

第4步：博客有像韩寒或AiWeiwei发现GBuzz并开始广播。 不仅是他们的职位，但最糟糕的还是，流动的意见是，中国当局接触。 现在在数以万计的评论线程。

第5步：下一个大的病毒事件击中了中国互联网，看到所有的评论将被删除其他博客和微博客，甚至更多的人开始蜂拥到GBuzz。

步骤6：现在大多数网民都了解，GBuzz是其桂枝茯苓丸的自由一天。 未经审查的照片陈冠希或醉酒的党员干部，再循环广泛，人们甚至写的表演的评价。 超过50％的话GBuzz全球普通话字符，其中约10％是某种形式的妈/逼字建设（ 母亲/阴户 ）。

步骤7：FOS的初期是相当繁忙，但人民最终实现自由沟通的优势。 中国互联网和世界其他地区之间的鸿沟正在迅速消失，谷歌BUZZ已经写在世界历史上一个页面。

I N 与此同时，某处在中东王国...

...邪恶5Mao队出售给党的网民已经赶上与GBuzz呼吁他们在宣传部门的老板，从他们的白酒梦想唤醒，并显示在繁文缛节和修枝剪桂枝茯苓丸总部...

结论

OK，我觉得你现在的精神。 和结论是这样的：有没有办法GBuzz将继续留在中国的开放。 唯一的问题，其余的回答是会发生什么其他的Google服务，特别是Gmail和Google.com（G.cn已经注定在我的书）。

我在这里看到2个可能性：

1 - 谷歌BUZZ可以在技术上被阻止不阻止Gmail，尽管在他们的整合。 桂枝茯苓丸可以实现＃嗡嗡所有的嗡嗡声网址上出现的字符串，通过使用智能网址块。 容易仍在，因为他们是在与谷歌谈判，他们可以要求G到GMail的其余开放，促进交流阻塞GBuzz。

2 - GBuzz下去，并采取了谷歌在中国的所有服务，一劳永逸。 尤其是这是可以实现的，如果谷歌和中国政府之间的谈判并不顺利，因为我最近应该。 发生这种情况已经在伊朗 ，我一定最中共领导人，甚至不眨眼。 或有没有人认为他们所关心的外界舆论对中国的言论自由吗？

因此，这仅仅是一个2路的窘境，我没有看到任何其他的解决方案。 谷歌对中国内政的最终结果很快会来到，沉淀由意外GBuzz诞生。 无论是谷歌和中共可以等待更长的时间，压力两侧安装。 到底是近了，系好安全带和打开你的VPN。

和新年虎年

现在我要关闭电脑，离开办公室，并采取一定在东南亚的热带目的地的航班，我打算花我的新年假期。 当我回到上海22日，谷歌Buzz将在中国，我将只是时间来收拾残局。 我期待着新整个虎年职位的系列。

的所有新年快乐，恭喜发财！

我已经离开了一会儿，因为我所有的假期时间已经由上海的两个有趣的故事，其中的一个电视连续剧，另一种新型吸收。

串行是WoJu，蜗牛的家，愚蠢地翻译成英文为的窄Dwellingness，或任何。 它已经在中国红热，因为其在11月的第一次广播。 爱丽丝刘单位“和“ 优酷Buzz博客最近遮盖。

由于这些博客指出，这一直是最具爆炸性的成功，我们还记得在中国的电视连续剧。 在不到一个月的时间里，它引发了激烈的辩论，在互联网上，吸引了数百万在线和关闭，并用了可怕的手检查员。 其快速成功的原因之一是有关的问题，买房子，正好碰到年轻的中国观众当场的中心主题。

但是Woju是远远比房地产和腐败的故事。 这是一个扣人心弦的戏剧，丰富的次要情节不断发展具有非常现实的字符填充，围绕一个中心三角恋。 近代中国社会的一个尖锐的批评，是迄今为止我曾经看到大陆电视上最好的产品。 最初它是一种新型的中国作家 ，我们应该看未来，更加紧密地溜溜，在2007年出版的。

下面是我的串行的印象，现在我已经完成了第15章。 我将集中在两个主要的兴趣点：希望了解中国的人的信息内容，并独立于其他因素的产品质量。 最后也是我观察，审查和其他相关的一些有趣的事情。

内容

这个序列是中国通，有抱负的中国问题专家的天堂。 任何试图了解中国的人都应该看它。 如果字符是不完全真实（没有小说可以永远）他们的忧虑，他们的问题和他们的动机是一个高保真的扩增，中国移动今天的年轻公民的反射。 它是浓缩了中国的现实。

我们一直在说过去几年的所有元素都存在，不是一个单一的一个缺失：关系建设，干部的二奶（爱好者），上海男人欺负自己的妻子的，谁也看不出他们的婴儿，非法工作的父母高息贷款，开发商和地方官员之间shanghaiers和外界的冲突，一夜之间丰富的温州，新中国的道德，拆迁或“摧毁”，“钉子人”谁抵制，移动之间的相互勾结山寨手机......你说出它。

和所有是如此精确，你甚至可以看到多少的人物都在自己的工作收入，高利贷什么兴趣问，要花多少钱的党的干部要得到他的第一个小二奶（情人）。

肯定有更好的书，描绘了在过去的中国社会，但主体正在发生变化如此之快，他们都是过时的。 我不认为有任何其他的小说今天的工作，更准确地反映在大约2010年的上海社会。

“你好，我是市委局局长宋（我只是shagged你的女朋友）”

如果你正在学习中国，该系列产品是一个伟大的地道的普通话双MUST。 如果你不是，然后站在与英文字幕的DVD，希望海盗一个人翻译这一次与他的托福水平。 这肯定是有市场，如果他们与电影明年政府不制止它，我也不会感到惊讶。

质量

但更重要的是比上述所有产品的质量。 这是很好的小说和良好的娱乐。

故事是由强烈的爱情三角形的中心美丽的女演员扮演，年轻的海藻李念 。 上面列出的所有元素，包括房地产热潮的赢家和输，倾向于解决此爱/恨的故事，在接触了两个不同的世界：laobaixing干部，中国城市的两个类。

但也许是最好的串行方面，中国电视上呼吸新鲜空气，是绝对缺乏对公众的道德教训。 这里没有英雄或恶棍。 贪婪的开发商，难耐徒劳的妻子，缩头缩脑上海的丈夫，神秘，蛮横的上海姑娘李念饰演。 他们每个人只是人类的弱点，并和我们一样的野心。 他们每个人都可以以最好的和最坏的。

即使是贪官，是人之常情。 一个软弱的人在中年危机，在他手中的权力太大，不检查自己的行为和系统。 腐败，象爱情一样，发生的事件的自然过程，一个病态的社会​​和个人的邪恶计划不结果。 和绛州，为上海代表中国谭，是强大的旋风行动，其中的所有字符绝望漂泊。

检查

这并不奇怪，串行一直由政府审查。 然而，它已被审查的方式，罢工我假正经，如果不能清楚地白痴。

因为我现在是在欧洲，我已经能够观看YouTube上的串行和审查一个中国网站优酷上的比较。 有没有对图像的审查以上，其中上海市委官员公然与男友聊天的女孩，他刚刚被强奸免费使用他的政治力量。

相反，下面的图片进行审查：

看到原来的场景，下面审查的版本，在中国所示。

这是第一个串行正确的性场面。 在原始版本中，您会看到在屏幕的四分之一海藻呻吟的脸，而其他的图像对应到各自的妻子和男友，谁是在家里，担心自己的亲人，而他们正在做奥运类的乌龟。

是海藻的呻吟脸更比上面显示的快乐先生宋淫秽？ 画出自己的后果。 同样有趣的是要注意生产者参加在审查过程中，火爆的场面，不仅切出，但编辑和取代其他原稿放大图像在上面的妻子。

其他细节和问题

我会回来当我与串行更多细节，但目前我有2个问题，为市民，特别是许多中国人，我知道是谁已经观看了整个35章：

1 - 串行秀为什么如此显着的海藻“Coogle”shanzhaied电话，它只是使其更现实，或者是报复，因为谷歌拒绝赞助？

2 - 有一个阴谋的一部分，我只是不明白：海藻是处女，当她第一次与宋睡觉，如果她已与男友多年的生活吗？ 这是一个阴谋的差距，还是我错过了一些严重和令人担忧的中国文化元素？

在本系列的前两个 员额 ，我们看到，中国是世界的语言保持了一套完整独立的词汇根和非代表他们的语音脚本，我们可以称之为一个单独的词系统。 出于这个原因，我认为，中国可能是最困难的语言得到充分的流畅性，无论对学生的语言背景。

但也有比单纯的语言的困难，特别是文化和政治的，更有趣的问题。 因为拒绝使用贷款和语音脚本是有意识的决策结果。 的确，有没有在语言本身，禁止进口的外来词或一个字母使用，有目前使用中的直接贷款，写拉丁字母，如DVD或KTV已经有一些例外。

中国有来自世界各地不同的并行的Word系统，以及政府在维护本系统有积极的作用。 然而，这项政策是不会单方面强加以上。 它肯定是鼓励教育系统，但中国的扬声器似乎遵循自然，往往喜欢的中国根，即使没有监督。 这是在与系统的尝试，以保护当地的条件，才发现，人们还是喜欢“电子邮件”，“快递ELECTRONIQUE”在许多国家的情况相反。

人居住在中国有着悠久的足够认识到作为一个不同的文明，如何知道中国是其悠久的历史和自己的状态。 这种话语是对西方人的刺激性，因为它提醒太多极端民族主义的信条回家。 但它有一个与那些信仰的本质区别：在中国的情况，这是事实。 正如我们之前所说的 ，中国是有道理的，看到自己作为一个文明的摇篮，它是从世界的主流，直到近代几乎独立生存，只有这样的文化。 这种文化意识的主要原因是为保存语言，因为我们知道，幸存的不同的制度，甚至混乱的时期。

当我们研究中国，我们不只是学习另一种语言，我们是一个平行世界的话，词汇的最后一个独立的系统学习和写作，人类仍然有。 这是最类似地球上的另一个星球的语言学习经验。 如果中国确实是这样努力地学习，这应提供足够的动力，任何人尝试它。

政治上的考虑

普通话本身并不是一个非常困难的语言，是什么使得它很难是其复杂的Word系统，这是没有必要的大部分（即语言可能仍然存在贷款和一个字母）。 该系统使得它很难外国人和中国沟通，这是中国教育的一个严重障碍。 在上个世纪的发展，一直是中国的主要优先事项，以恢复她昔日的辉煌，已拆除低效的文物，无闪烁，就像北京的城墙，。 中国的词和字符，最后以保持这些阻塞的纪念碑，是迄今为止最古老的所有。 这是一个奇迹，他们已经存活直到今天。

字符的未来似乎更安全方便的方法，在键盘上输入字符的发明，但他们的持久性是没有保证的手段。 许多著名的语言学家认为拼音作为主要书面语言和消除人物的日常生活，而不是鲁迅，或已故的约翰·弗朗西斯至少使用。 虽然我很佩服这些人，他们的工作，我完全反对他们的位置作为一个原则问题。 我不认为任何人都不会相信我在这个年龄的经济学家，甚至在新中国哲学 ，但我必须这样说的：效率是不是最高值。 事实上，它甚至不是在本身的价值，但只是一种手段。 和悲伤的手段将是恢复中国的伟大，如果有留下什么恢复。

我认为这是明确的大多数中国人的今天，他们的话语系统是太珍贵了，为了提高效率，放弃它。 然而，一些合理的让步，可这可能确保系统的长期生存。 特别是，接受外国贷款为新技术的话，可能会促进国外研究和认真开始真正的中国人才外流的外国人才纳入中国的访问。 完全接受了拉丁字母代表语音外国专有名词（已经被用于非正式）也将是对效率的一个步骤，在不牺牲系统的心脏，将所有想学英语的中国有很大的帮助。

除了考虑的实际问题，同样重要的是心态背后的中国词语系统。 所有的语言在世界不断增长的常用词汇有很大一部分，是人类共同的文化和大多数文化的认同，因为这部分只会成为更大的技术进步，合理的解决方法是采取一种共同的语言沟通。 通过决定远离除了这个系统，对中国的语言选择代表世界各地反对的立场，并以某种方式延续了传统的古村，甚至在全球联网的年龄隔离。 中国互联网社区和偏狭的误解 ，从它出现的文化之间，在一定程度上，这种选择的后果。

在中国的关系中发挥的语言与世界的一部分可能不是第一重要的。 但即使在今天，这部分是不是可以忽略不计，在通信技术的进步，没有人知道多么重要，它在未来将成为。 最终，它最多只能到中国来决定他们自己想要的是什么语言。 我们只能等待，看看，希望他们找到一种方式留在我们的连接，同时保留其独特的遗产词。

上星期五，我写了一个很长的职位，我结束了包括太多的想法。 的主要点位了，结果掩盖，但它是简单地此：在学习一门语言，词汇起着至关重要的作用，不仅是因为中国这个极其困难的先进水平，但也越来越难与时间。

我不认为这是开创性的研究，但有趣的是，因为大多数人都没有意识到这一点，也对在悫语言和政治两个领域，我们要培养这个博客的限制其影响。 下面是结论充分的论据，例子和详细信息，请参阅以前的职位 ，其意见：

• 要学习一种新语言所需的主要知识是在三个方面：语法，语音和词汇。 语法和语音不同，基本上是从词汇中，前两个是无限的情况下适用的规则，而后者则是原始数据。 我们可以打电话给他们的语言代码和数据元素。 代码元素是有限的，而不是增长。 几乎是无限的和不断增长的数据元素，它不完全掌握母语甚至点。

• 学习一种语言时，代码元素发挥至关重要的作用水平在初级和中级，但先进水平的通信真正的障碍，因此进步是数据。 例如，在德国先进的学生有时可能会使用错误的词尾变化，并在西班牙，他们可能无法区分“RR / R”的声音。 这些东西往往不妨碍沟通，因为人类的语言是高度冗余。 我永远不会明白“佩罗”（但是）当一位发言者说，“perro”（狗）。 最终，在代码元素的含量口音相同的缺陷：大部分的时候，他们仅作为元数据相关。

• 但同时一定程度以上的代码是高度冗余，数据仍然在每一个级别所必需的。 从这个伟大的文章 ：借用短语“浴池找到有效的治疗静脉炎”是毫无意义的名词一方或双方是未知的。 缺少一个单一的词往往可以掩盖整个段落或文章的含义。

• 被动的话在现实生活中使用的数量远远超过了典型的语言水平标准名单。 这是因为半专业词汇，如离子 ，J acuzzi或矩阵不包括词汇表，因为它们被认为是太罕见了。 当然这些话是很少使用，但有这么多，作为一个整体，他们其实很经常使用。 这个数据元素是如此之大，不能在教室里的记忆，并获得它的唯一途径是通过多年的浸泡。

• 为什么大多数语言学习者从未意识到这个问题的原因是因为他们是“欺骗”。 在世界上的大多数语言中，这个高层次的词汇几乎是相同的，它并不需要学习。 有一定的限制水平为每一种语言以上的最现代的词是国际和数据是没有更具体的语言。

• 这个词汇衔接的限制水平为每一种语言不同，但它没有这么多的依赖于语言的家庭或原产地域，而是取决于的大小和的扬声器社会的发展。 这是中级以上是非常容易的原因，即使非印欧语系语言，如巴斯克：社区是不是大到足以支持复杂的条款，所有更高的数据是从国际通过。 大多数人往往误解和太重视语言家庭的概念，他们来到这个荒谬的名单，如。

• 国际化的词汇越来越多，在电信和全球化的进展，尤其是因为，英语已成为科研的唯一语言。 在科学发明新的瑞典方面，例如，有小点，当所有的科学界的读/写他们的论文中英文。 通常情况下，尽管在政治努力，以促进本地的词汇，语言的经济恢复更高的数据传输回Internationalese。

• 这是唯一一个在世界上的语言，历史，政治和人口的原因，一直保持这一趋势的一个例外：语言是中文（普通话，粤语或其他人，这里是无关紧要的差异）。 它构成了高层次的数据并行系统，在其余的Word共同很少说话。 日本和韩国是他们借鉴中国和国际体系，但现代的话越来越国际和这些语言的融合，其余部分例外。

• 除此之外，中国有一个可笑的困难的书写系统，其功能的语音脚本缺乏独特。 这种化合物的词汇问题：不仅有更多的学习比在任何其他语言的话，但每个字包含更多的信息，因为它需要与其相应的字符相关。

• 此外，因为没有标准化的方式来抄写外国专有名词，甚至地方和个人的名字往往被“翻译”成中文，有时完全离开原来的语音，并成为中国在自己的权利名称。 这增加了在中国的语言已经非常庞大的数据元素。

这一切都需要我们的结论：中国是最困难的语言，在一个高层次的学习，无论学生的起源。

这是特别有趣，因为到现在为止这个问题的正确答案是：“取决于你自己的母语”。 与日本/韩国学生可能是个例外，这个职位需要，中国实际上是别人最难的。 成反比的是，它也很难对中国学习其他语言，虽然这是由其他语言功能的语音脚本的事实减轻。

另外一个有趣的结论：中国不仅很难，它实际上是越来越困难。

随着世界变得越来越相互关联和技术占据了我们的生活更加重要组成部分，新的半专业词汇在日常语言中的增加部分。 参照国际概念，如“垃圾邮件”或“等离子电视”的表达式，越来越多地指的是当地的文化遗产表达的地方。 在这个意义上，我们可以说，在世界上所有的语言都趋同，而中国是一个岛国，其余所有分歧。

再有，我们可以从中得出的政治结论，但我致力于写短职位，因此，我们将离开的第二天。 欢迎评论和更正我的论点以上。

来自于生活的每一个学生的普通话点时，他觉得写的语言困难的呼叫。 时间终于来到了，我的 主人，我会按照路径 。 事实上，我打算走得更远。 我证明，中国是世界上最困难的语言。

我知道我危险的地面上行走，日语学习者节是一定要在我爱上所有其declensions的重量。 为了使这是一个公平的游戏，我会先定义我理解的困难：一个普通人需要的时间没有以前接触相关语言，实现一个功能的水平，其中功能理解为能够执行每一个正常的活动，在普通话没有明显的缺点，如：写论文，举办正式会议，以正常速度阅读，在嘈杂的酒吧聊天。 我以我的法语作为这个级别的标准衡量自己的水平。

当然，这个标准和“重大缺点”的整体概念是主观的和难以衡量，但对这个职位的目的，它应该是足够的。 请注意，这里的关键因素是实用工具 ：我特意关注较少，如口音方面只要在正常的沟通方式，因为它没有得到支付。 原因是，我考虑到语言作为沟通工具，而不是一个标志的状况，出身或其他可能的功能。 在中国，任何可能使用模仿口音失去了大多数外国人，因为五官立即给他们带走。

除了口音，像中国古典的重要领域给予我的“功能性”的定义，重量很少，原因很明显。 它是真实的，通过这个定义，我削弱我而言，最困难的语言，但我们可以负担得起的，因为我们最强大的武器仍然在储备。

还有一件事之前，我继续：这次演习已经试过很多次了，喜欢这里 ， 在 这里和这里 。 我忽略了以前的结果，因为他们这样作为老师的看法或某些常规参数没有任何在现实生活中的使用比较标准。 Each student is free to chose his own definition for difficulty and functional level, but it seems to me that the one in this post, summarized as “ the level needed to use the language seamlessly in native contexts” is the one that most people would naturally accept.

My argument follows the process of studying Chinese through 3 stages: First I prove that Chinese is easy, then I prove that it is difficult. Finally, I will give the reason why Chinese is THE MOST DIFFICULT language in the World. If you are already familiar with the study of mandarin you might want to skip straight to the third chapter.

Chinese is Easy

The simplicity of Chinese grammar at a basic level and the easy pronunciation and memorization (without tones) of the first lists of words makes for a very mild learning curve at first. I've had many occasions to compare with students of Spanish in Spain, and almost always the students of Mandarin in China are faster to start using simple sentences. Apart from the language itself, I suspect that the curious and chatty nature of the Chinese is an important part of it.

If you have been in China long enough you have probably seen some of those miracle students that learnt Chinese in 1 year. I have met a few of them myself, and in some cases I was amazed by the results. These people are essentially natural communicators, they don't need the tones or the characters because they use a very powerful tool in mandarin, which is context. Their intonation and body language channel tons of information, and so they are able to entertain a band of adult Chinese for hours on end, while you sit there bitterly wondering where to put the 了. That is a real story, by the way.

Of course, not everyone can be such a great communicator, but the point here is: for a certain kind of person and for a certain kind of objectives, Chinese can be in fact an easy language when learned in immersion. That is the kind of superficial level that is referred to when you hear someone say “he speaks 14 languages fluently”. It includes just the most basic characters, practically no grammar and long lists of everyday vocabulary memorized without tones. It is nowhere even near my definition of functional level , but it is useful and rewarding, and for most people it is all they need.

It is for this reason that to every foreigner coming to China, especially the curious and communicative ones, I strongly recommend studying Chinese conversation without characters. At this first level it makes economic sense for most of them to study seriously.

Given a prolonged exposure to mandarin speaking environment, a speaker can go a long way without characters. However, for serious students of mandarin, the non-character path is not sustainable. Among other reasons, because it will make it impossible to read and write, effectively leaving off limits large areas of knowledge.

Chinese is Difficult

The potential student should think very carefully before stepping into the next phase. Because it requires an investment in time that is out of proportion with the study of almost any other language, or even with such complex undertakings as, for example, obtaining a PHD. In the vast majority of cases it does not make economic sense, and it is simply not a rational choice. So if you decide to go there, just make sure you have irrational motivations.

The difficulties that appear in this phase, such as characters and tones, have already been described in the excellent articles mentioned above , so I will not go into details. I will just stress the factors of context and interdependence, which I feel are sometimes understated. The idea, summarized, goes like this: Those two diabolically difficult codes that are spoken and written Chinese are made even more difficult to learn because they tend to be not self-supporting in the mind of the student, but relying on each other, and then both of them rely a good deal on context.

This is the most absurd part of the system, because intuitively one would imagine that a (semi) ideographic script is independent from Speech. The truth is that not only they are not independent, but the whole system is so inefficient that Chinese themselves rely heavily on their Spoken language to interpret the characters. This explains, for example, why it is so easy to come up with characters that your average Chinese cannot read, or why they can read a newspaper knowing only 2000* characters but you cannot, as they successfully use their spoken language to remember/guess the missing characters.

In the other direction, the dependence on written material to learn to speak is common to any second language, as being able to read words in a phonetically significant way makes them much easier to remember. In China, the existing material in proper pinyin (Latin letters with tonemarks) is practically zero, and the tendency of some letters and tones to vary among regions makes it almost impossible to learn them properly just from listening. To make matters worse, Chinese speakers themselves rely on the characters to solve ambiguities, as is often the case with names of people and places, or when they explain a new word: “My name is Jiang,” they say, “the beauty-woman Jiang” referring to the 2 parts of the character 姜. Ambiguities tend to happen a lot in contextual languages like mandarin, even more when a foreigner is involved.

This mutual influence between speech and writing has many other consequences unique to Chinese: for example, it is impossible to write down or even read foreign words without an advanced knowledge of characters, making it very difficult to understand familiar names both in writing and in conversation.

All these factors (and many others I haven't mentioned) provide an extremely difficult learning environment for a foreigner. This is the main reason why it is impossible to reach functional level without following a balanced approach on spoken and written language, plus immersion in Chinese culture. It explains why sinologists with a vast knowledge of characters never get to speak the language functionally , and neither do old China Hands living for decades in language immersion. They both stand on a wobbly platform with one leg shorter than the others.

In short, to study Chinese the effort is similar to learning 2 different languages that need to be pursued in parallel**. And each of these two languages is a LOT more difficult than French (for an English speaker).

This however, has still failed to impress the students of Japanese, who are already grinding their katanas to come after my head. I will admit that, up to here, the Japanese language still has a good chance of beating Mandarin. Move on to the next section to see my checkmate.

Chinese is the Most Difficult Language in the World

Now is when we get to the third phase, that of students at a functional level , without any “significant disadvantage”compared with native speakers. As far as I am concerned, this phase is just hypothetical: I have never seen a foreigner who got there. I am not saying this person does not exist, I just mean that after 3 years in China I haven't met any, that is how rare it is.

In terms of the measure standard established, I could phrase it like this: I have still not met a single foreigner who is fluent in Chinese at a level to compete with my own level in French, which is my 4th language, learnt as an adult in 3 years spent in France. I have an accent and a few faux amis , but I can read and write as fast and complex as any of my French colleagues with similar backgrounds, and I can't remember the last time I didn't get something on TV. I challenge anyone to get me a non-native Chinese speaker that can speak or write like I do in French, or even at a comparable level. Excuse me if I sound cocky, I am just writing this because it is the basis of the argument that follows.

But let's get to the real point of this post: Why is Chinese the most difficult Language in the World?

The main basis for this assertion has to do with vocabulary. I think that in most studies about learning Chinese, this factor has been greatly understated. It is in my opinion the single most important obstacle for a student to get to the functional level . Before I explain why, let me give some background:

In the origin there are deep cultural reasons, that come from the fact that China is seen by its speakers as a cradle of civilization. Actually, it can be accurately said that China is one of the cradles of civilization, and the only one that has kept a living language to this day. Linguists will say that the language has changed completely since the times of the Shang, but this is a purely technical objection. Culturally, it is STILL the same people and the same language, it is felt like this by the speakers, and this entails a series of attitudes that are unique to Chinese.

These “attitudes” include not recognizing Latin or Greek as cultural references, and by extension not accepting English or other foreign roots in the creation of new words. This is the heart of the matter. This makes things extremely difficult for foreigners studying mandarin, and also for Chinese studying foreign languages. And it has implications that go beyond the scope of language learning.

Regarding the practical consequences for the student of mandarin, consider this: the active vocabulary required to obtain a standard level of language—for example, the vocabulary required for highest level of HSK— typically contains no more than a few thousand words, which are more than enough for everyday general conversation. And yet, the HSK11 people that I have met were not even close to competing with my French.

The reason is that for people with a higher education, the passive vocabulary really needed to attain a functional level is much larger than the vocabulary required in any standard test of proficiency. Think of vector , ion or metaphysical . None of these words enter the standards lists of vocabulary because in theory they are technical terms, and yet they appear in normal conversation and you are expected to recognize them even if you have no idea what an ion really is. You acquire these words through a lifetime of living inside a culture.

So what happened with my French? Obviously, I just learned the few thousand words necessary to get along, and from then on it was extremely easy… because the vast pockets of specialized vocabulary were for the most part already known to me. And that is because, once you have learnt to decode phonetics and grammar, and above a certain level of vocabulary, all the languages in the World become almost the same—except for Chinese, that is.

And as a consequence of this Chinese differentiation, the only practical method for most people to achieve functional level is to spend a lifetime in immersion, in order to acquire the vocabulary in all those fields that are not studied in language school and can only be learned through experience. In summary, for a student to become functional it would take, following our three phases above:

1. Exceptional communication abilities, talent and motivation.
2. Years of full-time study to learn reading and writing.
3. Even longer – min around 10 years? – in 100% immersion in China.

Essentially, we are speaking of a person who is dedicated to Chinese as a career, who has a talent for language and who lives in a total Chinese environment for many years. It is not impossible that this person exists, and we might even have someone in comments below who responds to this description. But the conjunction of those 3 conditions in one single person is extremely rare, and for the vast majority of students, functional level in Chinese will always be out of reach.

Excuse the long post, I wrote it out of frustration the other day when I got stuck in the middle of a sentence containing ionic treatment, partly because the word for ion, 离子 (li2zi3) like many other technical words, does not give you any clue when it is out of the context of physics. I would like to see what the Japanese (who are pretty good at saying “ion” phonetically) have to answer to this. Checkmate.

And Chinese has won the dubious honour of being the most difficult language in the World.

注意事项：

*There has been much discussion about this and the number is probably wrong. The point is that even when you get to know more characters than a native Chinese, he will still be able to read much better and faster than you. This is frustrating.

** I am using terms very loosely here, Written Chinese is not in itself a language but a representation of Chinese. It is not really studying 2 languages, but I find this comparison useful to give a feel of the raw amount of data that needs to be stored into your head.

聚苯乙烯。 If you are interested in this debate, see the summarized and hopefully more clear post here .

So Obama is in China, and even if he is not my president he is still my favourite president. Here is my first-hand analysis of the visit.

The most important news, surprisingly gone unnoticed by all observers, is that Obama wants to become Euro-bama in Chinese. That is how I read the new spelling of his name in characters, as proposed by the website of the white house :

欧巴马 (oubama) will replace 奥巴马, where 欧 is the Chinese character for Europe, making the name sound in Chinese like Euro-Bama.

Some might say that the new spelling is chosen for greater phonetic similarity, or because it is standard in Taiwan, but when have politicians listened to the linguists? There is a clear political motivation in the naming of Euro-Obama, and I see a bright future in the project.

I think I speak for a large number of Europeans when I say we are very happy to see this plan finally in execution. Mr. Obama, please sweep away all our bunch of incompetent presidents and prime ministers, and become King of the European Union. Then, perhaps, in the next meeting with China you can represent our united interests, instead of having each European tribe sending its little pathetic chief for the CCP to cleverly divide and manipulate a la Sun Tzu .

One of the things I like of being European is that you can be thoroughly unpatriotic against the UE, and nobody cares. Dear commentators of the Washington Post , please do not worry anymore. America is not in decline yet, and it will not be for a long time. Among other reasons because it is needed by European countries that are too incompetent to unite in international politics. And indeed, when the Chinese people see Obama, they see a leader of the West as much as they see a leader of America. Because seen from here, the concepts of West, Europe, America, or Euramerica (欧美）have never been all that distinct.

After this important geostrategic consideration, you can continue to read what else is to read about the visit. Essentially nothing, because no real news have emerged yet, and most journalists and bloggers alike do their best to fill in their columns with China generalities. Apart from the links above, interesting questions are:

• Will Obama comment on the Human Rights Watch report about black jails and other human rights issues? Of course this will not happen, no more than Hu will elaborate on the new theories of the Liberation of Tibet. But it is interesting for the sake of debating.

• Perhaps more likely is that he mentions the environment, as this blog suggests . I am pretty sure the two leaders will mention it, actually, a different thing is how much of a commitment will come from the meeting. From the voiceless rest of the World we will be watching to see if the 2 giants finally decide to make a move and quit sending their fumes to our back yard.

• Finally, a lot of articles out there speak of Obama-mania and make a big deal of the Obamao icon, which has been circulating in China since before the election . My view is that young modern Chinese tend to like Obama, and he is marginally more popular than Bush was. But there is no such thing as the Obamania we saw in Europe, and most people here adopt a cold stance of “wait and see”. The minute 欧 mentions some delicate issue or meets some old lama, it will take no more than a minute of well phrased CCTV news to wipe the Obamania into thin air.

So already, quit the Obamaos and give me some Eurobamas, we are growing tired of politics over at the other side of this continent.

This business trip in Sichuan is really full of surprises. Today we went to visit the Project, a giant industrial complex which will be, upon completion, the largest factory in the World to produce X. A typically Chinese megaproject on the bank of the Yangtze.

But the surprise came when we went to town for lunch, and I found out that the river that flowed into the Yangtze at that point was called the Wu. I hadn't realized before, because the industrial park takes a different name, but sure enough, our client confirmed this point: we were in the riverside town of Fuling.

If you have read the classic China book “River Town”, you know why I was so thrilled. If you have not, then go and get it now . Since you are reading my blog, chances are you are one of those crazy Westerners that seek to understand the Chinese. This books explains them all for you, and in the process it gives you a rare glimpse into the life of inland China. It is fascinating, especially if you don't live in the country already.

The Book

I am taking this chance to do a little review of River Town, so I can start to catch up with my old plans of running a book reviews section. Considering this book is relatively old and already well known, I will just stick to the main points and try to keep this post reasonable.

The story is very simple, it tells the experiences and feelings of the author during his 2 year stay as Peace Corps in Fuling, a third tier town on the Yangtze. Nothing really happens, except that it is inland China in the 90s, and everything happens. The book is enjoyable from the beginning, almost every page right to the end.

Here are the key points as promised:

- Very enjoyable natural writing, with vivid descriptions of the places and the people. One of the best examples I know of literature meeting anthropology. Memorable is the description of the Fuling streets and their “stick-stick soldiers” in the initial chapters.

- The author is a fine observer, and he has the advantage of direct access to his students, who write down for him their opinions about a variety of subjects. One of the main highlights of the book is the contrast between the Fuling and the Western mentality, expressed on the background of the classics of English literature.

- For the sake of balance, some points I liked less: towards the end the book looses some strength (not surprising, after the great first half). The scientific detachment of the author can become a bit exasperating, and sometimes it feels like the anthropologist has taken over the writer. The last dramatic scene with the mob doesn't help to fix this, and I couldn't help feeling that it was an unnecessary addition. But then, that is only my opinion, and I was never in Fuling in the 90s.

河城

From what I have seen today, the town of Fuling is doing pretty well, changing so fast that it is almost impossible to recognize it in the descriptions of the book. For one thing, it took us less than an hour to get there from the center of Chongqing, which qualifies it as a close suburb. This is in great contrast with the backwater river town of the 90s.

Now the Fulingers are going to have some World class production facilities, and a good part of the population will be working there, with thousands more coming from all over China. It feels strange to realize suddenly that I have become myself one of the characters (although a very secondary one) in the story of the transformation of Fuling.

There seems to be only one thing eternal in China, and that is the masses of the working people, the “laobaixing”. Sure enough, the stick-stick soldiers are still there and in good shape, running up and down the stairs with massive loads hanging from their bamboo poles. For them, nothing has changed.

我知道，我应该学习的权利，不写职位。 但我只是呼吸稍微模拟考试两届会议之间，我在学习一门新的语言引人入胜的过程中反映，并就如何，当你通过几次，你最终发展自己的秘密方法，爬走过了漫长陡峭的阶梯。

我的方式来学习中国今年的基础上，我用我以前的语言：阅读方法。 它只能用来从中级开始。 In the case of mandarin, I would say this is not before 2 years of studying at a normal rate.

该方法首先获得最低水平的词汇，以了解最简单的文本，从这一点上，奉献你的学习时间来阅读小说迷人尽可能愉快的爱好。 如果你是一个像我这样的书呆子，这个作品非常好，因为你投入更多的时间研究远（读），比你会的，如果它是正常的演习。 我知道也有很多资源光标包括翻译与中国在互联网上阅读，但电脑往往会分散你的注意力非常快，而读一本好书，得到你的眼睛粘小时的字符就结束。

这种方法的结果是，你结束了广阔的被动词汇和出色的字符识别能力。 那么它是你在你的社交时间走出去，尝试使用这些话在交谈中，当地人说你听起来华而不实的风险，。 有时候，你甚至可以解除从一个新的完整的词组，它是有趣的，当你管理使用他们在现实生活中。 For example, when I was reading Lu Xun's “AhQ” I placed neatly my favourite line:

小毅：我讨厌我的老板，怎么办？

ULN：你先估量对手，口讷的你便骂，力气小的你便打。

小毅：天哪！

ULN：怎么啦？

小易：你又在练习！

ULN：我没有啊？。

诚然，我使用的方法是有点激进。 但社会阶段是它的一个重要组成部分，因为一旦你用一个字，一次成功的情侣，迅速移动到您的积极词汇，之后很少再离开你。 这是唯一可行的，如果你住在一个中国的环境中，它从来没有工作时，我是在欧洲。

阅读速度

在阅读方法的关键转折点是那一刻，当你意识到，你可以阅读速度不够快，真正享受它的一个故事。 This is a function not only of your knowledge of characters/words, but also of the interest of the book and of your own personal nerdiness. 当我看到我的第一部小说“兄弟”去年，我是如此兴奋，品尝中国通俗文学的风格，我很乐意花了两个月，通过成渝缠身余华700页犁地。

从那时起，我有很多我的阅读速度增加，到一个点，我在哪里可以可持续读非小说没有入睡。 编制了HSK高速要求帮助了我很多此，我必须说，尽管我在前面的所有的咆哮后 ，它使感迫使学生有点。 因为在本地正常速度读取字符的能力是最困难的在我看来，收购之一。

注意的是，当我说的速度，我不是指知道在文本中的所有单词的速度。 很明显，使用少的字典，它是可能的读取速度更快。 我的观点是，即使所有的话都熟悉的简单文本，我仍然是土生土长的中国人读了近3倍，比慢，还要经过1年的读书。 This is an issue that has appeared only when studying Chinese, and not in any of my previous languages that used latin script, so I have strong reasons to think that it is tied to the use of characters.

我认为它可能有与大脑的方式处理字符，不同的方式在中国教育从早期的年龄的人在这一领域的发展。 The post about reverse pinyin last week pointed me in this direction, and a few experiments I have done with my Chinese neighbours as well. I hope I have the time to write a bit more about this next week.

在此期间，如果有一个非本地有先进的读者，我想听听你的经验。 它最终得到更好的，你作为中国同样的速度在阅读吗？ 或者你有同样的问题，我注意到这里？ 让我知道。

确定，脱线，我又来了。 I already missed all Tuesday and Wednesday in an absurd meeting in Changsha so I need to catch up. I'll be back after the HSK, if I haven't showed up by Monday call the fire brigade.

I am back to Shanghai with some interesting anecdotes and some mildly funny pictures of Japan. Unfortunately, I will not be able to post any of that, because this week I am busy with work trips in China, and especially because this is the HSK week. It is just as well, I guess, after all this is not Japanyouren, and there are funnier travel bloggers out there if you are looking for a laugh.

Before I disappear for a week into my studying den, let me explain you again this business of the HSK. It is short for 汉语水平考试，or Chinese Level Exam, and it is the official standard to measure your level of mandarin, accepted by all universities in the mainland. It is also a very crazy exam, designed to squeeze out of the examinee's brains as much linguistic information as possible in 3 hours, and then put it down in measurable statistical terms.

As it happens, the HSK is an exam that does not mainly measure your level of Chinese. It measures your determination, endurance and sangfroid, and your faith in a better life after the bell. The good side of it, apart from hardening your soul, is that it gives you a good taste of the ultracompetitive Chinese education system and their university entrance exam. It is even reminiscent of the 科举考试 , the old imperial examination to select the bureaucracy, which famously caused some of the candidates to lose their wits and become heavenly kings . For a foreigner who is serious (deranged) enough to try to understand China, this experience is essential.

But back to the facts: This Saturday 17th is the HSK advanced, and I am going to fight for a level 9, out of 11 possible levels. I need to get this degree desperately, for the sole honourable objective of beating my own record. This is the Olympic spirit.

My practice essays with thoughts on the Four Books

Here are some details of the exam: the reading section contains text with a total of over 4,000+ characters, the equivalent of some 10 pages in a standard format novel, and on that text you have to answer 15 questions (not choose a,b,c,d, but actually answer with a sentence). There is a total of… 15 minutes for this part. I tested with a native Chinese friend and that is the time she took just to read the text at normal speed.

The essay writing is another scary part, because you get so used to typing with the computer that when it comes to handwriting characters you don't even know where to start. At least here you do get 30 minutes for an essay of 400-600 characters, so you actually have the time to read what you are writing, and to consider if you really want to express your own point of view in an exam which contains exercises like:

“ The concept of scientific development leads our people towards a more ——– society ” ( a-harmonious, b-harmonic, c-harmonium d-hormonal)

This example is not exactly literal, I am quoting from memory. The point is the HSK has a strong Beijing flavour, and some of the phrases are taken directly from CPC handbooks and the helmsmen's theories. In a way, it feels like the Four Books of the imperial examinations all over again: the Thought of Mao Zedong, the Theory of the 3 Represents, the Concept of Scientific Development… As the old saying goes: All things they've changed, and nothing has changed.