Ultraman

I also know a little background about what you mentioned for the Chinese language, for how they were formed and made up.
However, only a portion of Chinese words you can guess out their actual meaning by those methods, not every single word is like that. And the pronunciation part is even more complicated, why you think the pronunciation of "麵" is "面" is making sense but not "麥" instead, because you already learnt the words and you "knew" the actual answer, not because of you never seen this word before but you can pronounce it correctly for the first time.

Regarding for your another example involved something "opto...". Well, if you never know the word "opto" before, how would you guess the meaning of the words that might be related to it?

More examples, "apple" and "pineapple", (providing that you only know the word apple, but the first time to see pineapple) the only hint might be, they are both fruits, but how does a pineapple look like and taste like?
You know a person who sings is a singer, then you may think a person who cook must be a "cooker" (providing that you never know this word before). That makes sense, right?
This is what I meant, "can't guess the actual meaning of the word only by looking at its spelling". At least, it doesn't work every time.

fibbi

31# Ultraman

I guess no language you can tell all meaning of the word by just "looking" at the word. Need to learn a lot of "basic" words before we have some understand la, not only in Chinese.
But Chinese langauge is actually a bit better to understand because there are certain words DO come strictly from picture lor.
Anyway, back to topic, I think we should learn 繁體字 before simplified word. It's easier to switch from 繁體字 to simplify but not the other way round la.

Ultraman

31# Ultraman

Anyway, back to topic, I think we should learn 繁體字 before simplified word. It's easier to switch from 繁體字 to simplify but not the other way round la.
fibbi 發表於 2009-3-19 17:14

Agree. It's like to learn the regular form of English words before their abbreviation. Haha...

tofu

"""why you think the pronunciation of "麵" is "面" is making sense but not "麥" instead"""

because 麥 is 部首.  there is a formula to pronoun chinese character.  of course there are exceptions, but exception is exception

嘉嘉

The very main point is:
You don't get confusion in 繁體 like the 面 issue in 簡體

putting 一睇個字就知佢咩意思依個問題 aside
each word has it's own distinct character/appearance in 繁體

there's no problem to have same pronounciation for different words
as long as they are not over using the same word for every other meanings

Ultraman

"""why you think the pronunciation of "麵" is "面" is making sense but not "麥" instead"""

because 麥 is 部首.  there is a formula to pronoun chinese character.  of course there are exceptions, but e ...
tofu 發表於 2009-3-19 19:09

Yes, you're right. However, when do people know what is exception and what is not? As the word as simple as "助", neither it pronounces as "且" nor "力".
But on the other hand, simplified Chinese might be easier for people to pronounce (and write).

Anyways, I'm not going to discuss it any further.
I think it's up to personal preference to learn simplified Chinese. To me, to know one more language is always a benefit/credit.

tofu

yes, learning one more subject is a benefit/credit.  but if you don't have time to learn them all, what would your preference to learn first.

so you believe simplified chinese has no exception at all.  if someone knows nothing about a language, don't you think s/he can guess about that language.   we are talking about a person who has a basic knowledge of a language then s/he can guess a word that s/he doesn't know.  
no matter language, math or...., everything has exception, under exceptional case, we need to remember it.  in a regular day, we are talking about normal situation, reasonable person &...

嘉嘉

37# tofu
exactly, basic knowlege is the point

music is a language
math is a language
chemistry is a language
physics is a language

if you know nothing about them, you can tell nothing of them
once you know the basic, it's so much easier to approach

Ultraman

Yes, it's the point of "basic knowledge", and thus it applies to all/most "languages". So, once you have learnt the "basic" of simplified Chinese, it's just a piece of cake for further guessing.

For the priority, there is not a must for everyone. If time for learning a new language (or any other kind of new knowledge) is limited, depends on one's daily use and need and how urgent the situation is, one can set his/her own schedule in order to fulfill his/her need/interest.
But generally speaking, if you are living in HK/Van, you can't go wrong to learn all the following three languages: Cantonese, English, and Mandarin for speaking (by alphabetical order, not the importance); and English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese for written.

salad_bread

未開始學就話難，呢個係懶人既借口