Impact of Pinyin on Chinese people's ability to learn foreign langauges - Research Paper Example

It is now possible for Pinyin speakers to connect sounds to written forms of words. This knowledge is helpful in acquisition of a phonetic based language like English. As far back as the 1930s, Chinese leaders like Mao Zedong noted that the traditional systems of writing Chinese, such as Zhiyin, Fanqie, and Zhuyinfuhao, were too difficult to learn. Because of its dependence on characters, most of the population could not learn sufficient characters to develop a rich vocabulary. Therefore, Latinisation was regarded as a mechanism for quickly eradicating illiteracy in China (DeFrancis, 2006).

Difficulties in reconciling differences between written and oral Chinese also motivated the introduction of Pinyin. Chairman Mao stated that the Chinese language had several contradictions, as written Chinese came from symbols yet spoken Chinese did not (DeFrancis, 2006). It was thus difficult to learn the language and transmit knowledge in written forms. Prior to the 1950s, people who supported this movement held key positions in government. Therefore, political will existed to reform the language.

However, after the 1950s, a different group known as Mao Zedong took over the government, and was dedicated to the suppression of the Pinyin movement. Regardless of this opposition, intellectuals persisted in pushing for reforms until Pinyin was finally adopted in 1958. Learning a new language is often easier when the second language has elements of one’s primary language. For a language such as Chinese, these similarities are particularly imperative in facilitating the learning process. In the United States, Chinese is regarded as one of the most difficult languages to learn.

The US government has established a categorisation system in which they classify languages according to their ease of acquisition. Chinese, Arabic, Korean, and Japanese are all category IV languages, meaning that they take the longest to master. These