Yeah I have never heard a good argument for logograms over an alphabet or syllabary. It genuinely does seem to just make things harder and more confusing. Not saying they should overhaul their writing system or something to change that obviously, that would be insane.
Learning <30 symbols is objectively simpler than several thousand
Modern Chinese script isn't purely logographic, most of the characters are radical-phonetic. Like the word 媽 (mā) means mother, it combines the radical (left part of the character) for woman 女 with the sound of the word for horse 馬 (ma) indicating that the word sounds the same. A lot of characters show up a lot purely as their phonetic sound, which is why you can sometimes guess how a character is pronounced even if you've never seen it before with that radical. And I think the characters used for phonetics repeat a lot, and they often reference other words.
Think about it like this, if you learn 20 radicals and 20 determinatives (the right part of the symbol), that's 40 symbols, but you've learned 400 words from all the combinations they make.
It's still memorizing a lot of symbols instead of something like an alphabet, but it's not as daunting as most people think.
Also the people complaining about it are always foreign learners. I'm sure there is a very small number of native speakers who whine about it but when you're surrounded by Hanzi it's hard to not learn it. Seems kinda fucked up to tell someone their 4000 year old writing system "doesn't make sense" and "there are no benefits to it compared to alphabets". The Chinese are doing fine with it. I'm not looking it up but I guarantee literacy is much higher than America.
Yeah I have never heard a good argument for logograms
You need fewer characters to express the same idea. Ever notice Spanish language takes more space than English to write the same meaning? Chinese takes even less.
Learning <30 symbols is objectively simpler than several thousand
I agree, but I think it's easy to overstate this. With many alphabetic languages, you have to memorize patterns of symbols that no longer match the pronunciation. E.g. Ever notice how every vowel in English makes multiple sounds that overlap with the other vowels?
Learning <30 symbols is objectively simpler than several thousand
This is comparing apples and oranges.
Chinese characters are not the base units of the writing system. The equivalent of alphabetical characters in Han script would be singular strokes, of which there are only 10.
It's easier to learn the meaning of new words when they reference other words, unlike in english where you come across a new word and it can be referencing latin or other languages.
Of course it's kinda hamstrung when that reference can refer to 1 of 10 different characters that use that component and whose meaning has gone through a 3,000 year long game of telephone.
Yeah I have never heard a good argument for logograms over an alphabet or syllabary. It genuinely does seem to just make things harder and more confusing. Not saying they should overhaul their writing system or something to change that obviously, that would be insane.
Learning <30 symbols is objectively simpler than several thousand
Modern Chinese script isn't purely logographic, most of the characters are radical-phonetic. Like the word 媽 (mā) means mother, it combines the radical (left part of the character) for woman 女 with the sound of the word for horse 馬 (ma) indicating that the word sounds the same. A lot of characters show up a lot purely as their phonetic sound, which is why you can sometimes guess how a character is pronounced even if you've never seen it before with that radical. And I think the characters used for phonetics repeat a lot, and they often reference other words.
Think about it like this, if you learn 20 radicals and 20 determinatives (the right part of the symbol), that's 40 symbols, but you've learned 400 words from all the combinations they make.
It's still memorizing a lot of symbols instead of something like an alphabet, but it's not as daunting as most people think.
Also the people complaining about it are always foreign learners. I'm sure there is a very small number of native speakers who whine about it but when you're surrounded by Hanzi it's hard to not learn it. Seems kinda fucked up to tell someone their 4000 year old writing system "doesn't make sense" and "there are no benefits to it compared to alphabets". The Chinese are doing fine with it. I'm not looking it up but I guarantee literacy is much higher than America.
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You need fewer characters to express the same idea. Ever notice Spanish language takes more space than English to write the same meaning? Chinese takes even less.
I agree, but I think it's easy to overstate this. With many alphabetic languages, you have to memorize patterns of symbols that no longer match the pronunciation. E.g. Ever notice how every vowel in English makes multiple sounds that overlap with the other vowels?
Can we compromise and switch everyone to Hangul?
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This is comparing apples and oranges.
Chinese characters are not the base units of the writing system. The equivalent of alphabetical characters in Han script would be singular strokes, of which there are only 10.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_(CJK_character)
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It's easier to learn the meaning of new words when they reference other words, unlike in english where you come across a new word and it can be referencing latin or other languages.
Of course it's kinda hamstrung when that reference can refer to 1 of 10 different characters that use that component and whose meaning has gone through a 3,000 year long game of telephone.