The eradication of illiteracy in China began around 1949. Until then, only 20% of the population had been taught to read and write. The introduction of compulsory secondary education (9 grades) covered more than 90% of Chinese residents. Currently, the normative (state) Chinese language is spoken by about half of the total population of the country.
Instructions
Step 1
Literacy is a huge achievement for the Chinese Ministry of Education. Indeed, in the country in parallel there are many dialects (separate languages) inherent in different provinces. Representatives of certain nationalities do not understand each other's speech at all, but they can easily explain themselves with the help of hieroglyphs. It is they (graphic symbols) that are the connecting thread among the beads of the Chinese people. This is why none of the attempts to introduce the alphabet in China have been successful.
Step 2
Hieroglyphic writing is deeply rooted and dear to the heart of every Chinese person who respects centuries-old cultural traditions. The art of calligraphy has always been considered the highest in China. Since olden times, literacy has been virtually the only way of social growth and mobility. It is not for nothing that an educated person in China is called "teacher" and not "master."
Step 3
Tutonghua is a modern Chinese language derived from the Peking dialect. Thanks to television, the media and the education system, it is owned by about a billion people. Writing in columns from top to bottom is read from right to left. Today it is difficult to name the exact number of existing hieroglyphs. According to some reports, there are about 60 thousand of them, but the most common are no more than a thousand. It is this thousand basic designations that are part of more complex concepts.
Step 4
An educated Chinese person must master six types of hieroglyphs. Figurative signs are prototypes of simple ancient pictograms (sun, rain, water, etc.). Directional signs are symbols that roughly resemble the concepts they describe (down, up). Synthetic signs are variants of merging signs of the first two categories. For example, the word "carriage" is part of such concepts as "tank", "bus", "train", etc.
Phonetic signs are key words that unite a group of concepts that are part of more complex meanings and have 4 tonal positions that radically change the semantic load. For example, in the first key, the word means - thick, and in the third - a robber. The fifth type is the modified signs of the first 4 types. The sixth type is borrowed signs that describe new concepts.
Step 5
To read newspapers and recognize the most uncomplicated text, you need to remember about 2-3 thousand characters. In colloquial speech, the average Chinese uses 4-6 thousand. Philologists keep in mind no more than 10 thousand characters.
