Notice that the video refers to the "average reader", as if the vast majority of humans on earth read with their larynx. What I think it should say is "average reader of an alphabetic language", which actually excludes at least 15% of the world population.
I'm pretty sure the average Chinese person doesn't read with his/her larynx. Not that I have any evidence for this, but David and I talked about it a lot last year and it would explain why it still takes us agonizingly long to read headlines at the newsstand that Chinese people only glance at without breaking stride (also why closed captioning for the cartoons in the subway whiz by at what seems like a superhuman pace).
Not only are Chinese characters not phonetic (usually), but I have a suspicion that the Chinese character is somehow more culturally significant than the English written word. In English a printed word is just a placeholder, a reminder of how to birth that word into existence with your lips, tongue and breath. But Chinese, as I understand it, is the opposite: the spoken word is the placeholder and the written "word" is the thing itself. When Chinese people speak it's like they are saying "well it's a shame we can't be writing this all down but if I use the agreed-upon vocal cues, you'll know which characters I'm referring to, right?".
Anyway, the school year is officially underway. Jon is quite popular with the students (and the teachers; one teacher in the copy shop wanted to take him out for dinner (which I would be way more jealous if only that teacher were female)). Our co-planned intro-lesson has also gone swimmingly. I've tried really hard not to laugh at some of our new students' English names (seriously, you can't make these up), but then again they all laughed when I told them my Chinese name (which I share with a semi-famous Hong Kong pop star, Hacken Lee, sort of a Chinese Clay Aiken, I guess) so maybe I shouldn't try so hard....
Leave a comment