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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Is traditional Chinese writing unique...
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References: <mls-2004961955550001@mls.dialup.access.net> <31CCAB83.72F1@gold.tc.umn.edu> <4qlngt$cas@news.asiaonline.net> <7fu3w0wmzn.fsf@wisdom.cs.hku.hk>
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 23:37:40 GMT
Lines: 38

In article <7fu3w0wmzn.fsf@wisdom.cs.hku.hk>,
Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} <sdlee@cs.hku.hk> wrote:
>>>>>> "felsjb" == felsjb  <felsjb@asiaonline.net> writes:
>
>    felsjb> I like to ad, that we also have to keep in mind that the
>    felsjb> knowledge of the written language in China is rather
>    felsjb> low. From my experience working in China (1989-91), a
>    felsjb> number of our workers where not able to write simple
>    felsjb> chinese (such as there own name).
>
>Many Chinese are still  illiterate not because  the script is complex,
>but because   of the  lack  of education.   Japanese  has  a even more
>complex script, which mixes Kanji, Kanas  and sometimes Roman letters.
>Yet, Japan has the highest the literate rate.

	According to their own specious governmental figures.  There
was some speculation in this group and in sci.lang.japanese a while
ago as to how accurate these really are and as to what constitutes an 
acceptable definition of "literacy", especially for a complex script 
like  Japanese.  Has anyone ever done something like a field survey of
Japanese literacy?

>Try to convey a survey on people born  and grown up in Macau, Hongkong
>and Taiwan.   What is the illiterate  rate in these  relatively richer
>regions of   Han languages?  Don't forget  that  the  people  in these
>regions are still using the traditional  characters, which is supposed
>to  be  even more  complex than  the  simplified characters adopted in
>Mainland China.

	Given that a) literacy is a continuum and b) there is, AFAIK,
no international standard for what "literacy", comparing national 
literacy figures that one finds in, say, the World Almanac, seems shaky 
proof at best.

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
