Anyway, Happy Chinese New Year folks!

Not much changes from the Chinese interface, and you’ll find it to be familiar territory right away:

Proponents of Heisig or those that wish to focus on Kanji will feel instantly pleased that Skritter does this quite well. It does Kanji even for words that rarely use it, for example:

This also gives me a chance to showcase other aspects of Skritter that I couldn’t cover in my previous post. First, however, a look at the differences of the Japanese page. Here, we find that they also provide the various readings for each Kanji, as well as for the components that make up the Kanji. I wouldn’t suggest that one study those, but it provides a very nice reference. And, as you go through, they will start to stick without direct study.

Also, in this case, we can see a ‘failed card’. This can happen by completely forgetting how to write it. You would click the “show” button below, thus giving you a grayed out outline of the character:

Then you just trace it. One nice feature is that the outline doesn’t stay as you write. So it forces you to remember how to write it, and not just get into the habit of tracing the characters–and thereby not really learning it.

All the while it also provides pronunciation for all of the vocabulary that you come across. It also has a large selection of pre-made decks, including books such as Genki, JLPT study materials, my much hated Nakama, Yookoso, and many others. Rare words have red readings (see 「居る」above) so you can distinguish them. It switches between reading, writing, and meaning just as the Chinese version does.

So, what doesn’t Skritter for Japanese do? Well, it doesn’t seem to offer en engine to recognize the kana systems yet. Not a huge discredit, as the focus is on Kanji, but some users may wish you have the ability to write them to know particular verb endings. Second, there is no “pronunciation input”, like the pinyin input for Chinese, for Japanese. More than likely it is because of the difficulty getting the input to read kana, but it is also nice because they don’t just default to using roomaji just to have a pronunciation system in place. Finally, again, many people would wish for more context, but as I said for the Chinese, it can be found elsewhere.

Skritter makes a very useful supplement to your regular studies. I know the Japanese portion was recently implemented, so I look forward to seeing how it develops. Again, it’s always worth a shot!

Skritter is a subscription-based SRS service that can be used to study both Japanese and Chinese. It focuses on handwriting input (so having a tablet would be a good idea, though using a mouse is alright, though tiring), while also looking at pronunciation and meaning as well. So, let’s take a look!

(I love using images to show clear examples of how things look, so the rest of the post will be after the break below)

The main study window.

So, once you go in, Skritter will bring up your entries based on an SRS algorithm. In this example, I’m working on learning radicals, so I have to write it from memory.

Radical baby!!

Here, I love that the “paper” is very similar to the character writing paper seen, not only in Western textbooks, but also as those used for students in Asia. It also gives you a very large area to work in, which is quite nice too. Next up, I had to write the pinyin for the following phrase:

A feeling often reflected in my Sim Cities.

The nice thing about Skritter, too, is that I can leave it open in a tab and come back to it every so often just to do a few quick reps before I continue working on my other projects:

See, I totally study. What you didn't see were the tabs I closed.

I also always make sure to have my Wacom Bamboo tablet on the ready by my side:

There is something strange about the SRS algorithm though; it always brings up, just as I am about ready to finish up, entries I’m pretty familiar with and can easily do. So, because they’re like little bite-sized nuggets of SRS easiness and I just keep going… for another 15-20 reps.

The reps themselves do a nice mix of writing, reading, and meaning, while not overdoing one (though I feel I write a lot sometimes, but it’s nice practice).

Now what I really like was the ability to import decks. I can take my Pleco decks and import them into Skritter, allowing me to always keep up with the cards I enter as I go through one of my readings for the week. I just look up a word, put it into the flashcard program on Pleco if I want to learn it, then export it to Skritter–so I can study it both on the go with Pleco and at home with Skritter.

One detractor for me is the lack of sentence input, so you hardly see the words in context. While this may be bad for a beginner, or someone who hardly comes into contact with Chinese or Japanese material, it is actually not a huge disappointment for me. Rather, because I read so much for my classes, it just solidifies them in my mind more, and helps give me a context as I come across them when I read.

Another issue is actually within the biggest selling point: the writing element. This, I believe, though, also depends on the user. For example, writing the second tone, if you’re not careful, can get misconstrued for a first tone. Also, it does take some practice getting used to how writing actually works.

That said, it is very much worth checking out! If you’re interested, they have a demo here that you can try online; then sign up for a free trial if you like what you see.

In a future post, I will take a look at Skritter for Japanese.

Anyway, I’m mostly testing out the way WordPress handles footnote links, copied and pasted directly from Word, so we’ll see how it works. Of course, my Chinese still leaves much to be desired, but who knows, it may be some fun reading practice for someone.

At any rate, enjoy!

Edit: Ah well, the transfer for the footnotes didn’t go so well. I’m a bit lazy (e.g. strapped for time) to deal with it now, but just a head’s up so you’re not clicking like a frantic college student trying to salvage their lost work 15 minutes before it’s due.

Japanese Colonial Education in Taiwan, 1895-1945. E. Patricia Tsurumi. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1977. 334 pp.[1]

壹、簡述

        一九七七年哈佛大學出版社出版了E. Patricia Tsurumi（派翠西亞·鶴見著，以下以作者中文名字相稱）的Japanese Colonial Education in Taiwan, 1895-1946一書，是近來英文學術世界日本帝國主義下台灣之教育政策跟發展的傑出作品。此書，內容豐富，作者採用資訊多種多樣，對深瞭解日治時代台灣教育政策及發展的讀者，相當值得一讀。

在引言裏，作者開宗明義說明她在研究目的上以「日本帝國主義下台灣之教育當作殖民地發展的工具如何重要？」（」How important was Japanese education in Taiwan as an instrument of colonial development?」）作為分析當時日本教育政策的影響。鶴見提出被「殖民者的殖民主義影響 」的問題，尤其是對殖民者的身心。另外，透過當代朝鮮被日本控制的狀況，作者比擬朝鮮跟台灣的反應、收納跟抵抗。此主題貫串全書，是此書有趣的地方。本書一共有九章及四個附件（原住民教育、財政、書房下降、台灣跟日本學生post -primary學校）。本書的範圍涵蓋初期日本在台灣討論到日治末年、台灣知識份子、行動主義等。

鶴見首先開始說明日治以前台灣的狀況跟場景。在這章裏，她談到早期台灣史、荷治時期、鄭氏治臺時期、清治時期及日治時期。有趣的是，當是日本人將中國人在台灣稱為「台灣人」，讀者發現對日本人來說台灣人並不是中國人。日本一統治台灣，除了馬上讓台灣恢復社會的和諧之外，就準備計畫教育制度。作者指出，它的目的是在台灣「把傳統中國的分段轉換現代性日本的一部分」。他們採用明治維新教育制度的基本因素（培養啟發、磨練、向新政府灌輸的想法）當作典範。除了這個目的之外，日本人亦繼續教「中國古典學」（Chinese classical studies） ，然而禁止任何內容策勵台灣人認定他們中國文化的背景。

在第二章裏，鶴見帶著讀者隨行日在臺的教育沿革，將伊澤修二（1851-1971）充當開始點。伊澤修二其實對台灣很開放，他認為教育為國家的根本，而且政府的義務提供資金給每一所公立學校。不幸的是規劃太新潮，支援（尤是錢）少，當局終於決定締造公學校、師範學院及醫學院，且改成教育系統的目標為收攬台灣人替政府謀事、調訓日人在台灣、鼓勵女孩上學、產生台灣人的教師及醫務人員以及使教育制度的資金自給自足。公學校（唯台灣人上學）有兩個目標：第一、改善台灣小孩之日文能力，第二、為了養成「國民之性格」[2]，調教道德跟實用知識。[3]公學校的缺席率高，作者認為此跟台灣人勉強支持昂貴的教育有關。公學校畢業者隻有兩個職業選擇：教師或者醫師，其他的職業隻有日本人可以補缺。

接下來，作者提出女孩的教育。總督府推台灣的女孩上學的活動碰到困難，因台灣父母的觀念（自儒學來的）是女孩不需受教育；她們隻限於當好的妻子、媳婦，諄諄教誨的母親乃是她們的事業，所以大部分的家庭不讓女孩上學。此行為開始逐漸改善，1910年，97.38%　的台灣女孩開始上學。書房的話，總督府初期容忍它們的存在（總督府瞭解全然清除書房會以發土紳抗議），但是書房的教科一定要有日文、隻用總督府認證教科書、還有數學科。最後鶴見說明對在台灣日本人開設的學校品質最高，教科內容跟日本本國一模一樣，但是日本人跟台灣人上的學校是分開的 。儘管如此，作者指出，初期教育政策即為「逐漸演化」（gradual evolution）[4]的目標。

第三章裏，鶴見討論日本教育的擴張。日本的教育目標還是將台灣人轉換日本人，但是日本人跟台灣人並不是同樣的。日本人的教育培養日本人進入多種的事業；反之，除了當醫務人員之外，隻培養台灣人準備回以前的事業，沒有晉級機會。因此，公學校畢業者被迫回家，工作機會少，沒有高等教育機會。因此，台灣人（指有錢台灣人）開始派孩子去日本繼續升學（日本國內沒有殖民地教育的限制）。然而，總督府開始執行擴張跟升級公學校的規劃，如：女孩字的post-primary教育、蓋台灣人初級中學等。但是，台灣人越來越嚮往台灣人跟日本人教育平等化。

第四章裏，作者說明日本在台灣教育政策的下一階段：「制度化」及一體化。從1922年以後，往年的「逐漸演化」變成「同化」（assimilation）跟「一體化」（integration）的目標。「同化」的改革者明石元二郎認為「同化」一定要通過，要不然日本有可能會失去台灣，為了達到「同化」，明石元二郎斷言台灣人必須經過陶冶變成日本人。透過明石的執行，實際上改善及提高了台灣人受教育機會，然而台灣人跟日本人的種族隔離還是存在。此明顯地表示明石的「同化」是日本人跟台灣人的「一體化」不平等，即使台灣人全然「同化」了，對明石而言日本人跟台灣人還並不是平等的。明石的接班者，田健治郎治台方針為內地延長主義，也隨行「同化」。他的任務算是成功，台灣的公學校終於集成。

第五章裏談論關於田健治郎的「一體化法令」（integration rescript）之後，1922年至1945年台灣實質上並沒有改變。實際上，「一體化」沒減低台灣人跟日本人的隔離。為了論證這點，鶴見分析1922年以後的台灣學校，包含：初級小學（Elementary Schools）、職業學校（Vocational Schools）、師範學校（Normal Schools）、中級學校（Middle Schools）、高等女學校（Higher Girls Schools）、專門學校、台北帝國大學、私立教育（Private Education），台灣學生在日本等。總結來說，教育制度沒什麼改變。

第六章裏，作者分析公學校的「日本化」（Japanization），透過當時教科書，組織為：國語（日語）讀本及在日本學校的道德教科書，以及在國語跟道德。在第一部份，作者以唐沢富太郎的「教科書の歴史 : 教科書と日本人の形成」來分析教科書，自1904至1945年，分為五階段。第一段，1904至1910年，表示朝氣蓬勃民族主義。第二段，1910至1918年，表示多著重軍力及政府有國控制權的特權（state controls as prerogatives of the state）。第三段，1918至1933年，表示大正時代的潮流，包涵國家主義、實業家。第四段，1933至1941年，唐沢富太郎稱之為「法西斯主義出現」的時代， 原因是因當時日語為「日本人種族」（Japanese race）的資產，而且語言裏面具有「日本人的精神」（Japanese people’s spirit）。最後一段，唐沢表示1941至1945年「超級國家主義」（ultranationalism）的時段，軍國主義是教科書裏的主要方針。鶴見批評唐沢太強調最後兩段，公學小採用「軍方特色」（militaristic）的國語教科書及「超級國家主義」的內容，第五段的話，鶴見認為唐沢太講求「國語讀本」的軍方性內容。

在第二部分，作者分析公學校及在台灣日本人的小學校採用的課本，國語跟道德的課本，分為三階段。第一段，1922年以前的，國語讀本內的圖片、風景、關於台灣事情之小說等都有台灣的味道。道德課本，裏面的圖片跟小說表示日本當局向台灣年輕人展現日本的生活方式（show young Taiwanese living as their Japanese rulers would have them live）。第二段，1922至1942年，國語讀本即使內容有台灣風味，但是日語程度是跟日本一樣的。道德課本則跟1922以前的差不多。第三段，1941至1945年，國語讀本將日本風味替代台灣風味的內容，道德課本的國家主義內容則比日本人用的道德課本少。

第七章裏，鶴見是描述日本教育及台灣人生活，作者透過「社會教育，國語，鄉下的讀寫能力」，以及「城市及鎮的日化影響」來分析此題目。作者指出，即使鄉下的教育體系比城市來得式微，但是日本當局對鄉下推動衛生以及讓女孩上學、守紀律、合作等觀念。日本對都市人的影響則是讓他們懂得欣賞受殖民的好處例如建設下水道、醫院、清潔性、守紀律等。最後，作者比較日本帝國下之朝鮮（韓國）與台灣，原因是台灣跟朝鮮的教育政策、制度差不多，但是台灣人跟韓國人的反應完全不一樣。

第八章裏，作者分析日本教育、台灣知識份子跟政治行動主義，這章包涵：台灣學生在日本學習政治、成為保守派，及激進份子。鶴見再透過韓國來分析台灣行動主義。值得註意是，韓國人抗日、作亂，然而台灣人一般來說則是試圖對日本人修法來增進自己的權利，不一定要推翻日本總督府。

作者在結語裏指出，日本人對台灣人的目的就是完全同化。為了完成這個目標，日本人決定改善台灣教育，除了歧視（1922的「一體化法令」結果證明歧視問題）之外，算是成功，教育推動不少的台灣人。日本的教育改善台灣的生活水平（蓋鐵路、醫院、學校，改善衛生、農業、通訊等）。另外，一個很重要的部分是日本教育幫婦女改善她們的地位。日本殖民地政策推台灣婦女進入職業跟走入社會（public life）。

貳、評語

        讀這本書以前，我對日治期台灣教育史隻是略知皮毛，然而讀完此書之後，發現我對這個題目很有興趣，還有想繼續探索更多關於日治期台灣教育文獻。我發現總督府的教育政策大部分要吸引台灣的上流社會，讓我覺得很有意思。 透過仔細分析資料，這本書的目的：「日本帝國主義下台灣之教育當作殖民地發展的工具有多重要」成功了。台灣人接受日本大學（高等教育）教育的願望，提醒我們日本人同化台灣人的目的也成功了。然而，台灣人主要的要求，亦即社會平等、事業機會平等，及教育平等，作者應對如流，都在教育當局的手心。因此，當時有些台灣人的行動主義者要改善他們工作機會、高等教育機會，也要跟日本人在一樣的社會地位。

其次，這本書最特別的地方是在第四、五、以及七章，而且可說是這本書的核心。第一到三章談到日本在台灣教育政策發展，最後章談政治談日本教育跟台灣行動主義。第四到六章的價值在鶴見分析教育跟「皇民化」、「同化」，「制度化」以及「一體化」之關係。在此，作者帶著讀者認識當時一直改變的政策跟當局觀點。在日本人立場上，台灣不算是「荒島」的地方。他們真擔心本島的開發及本島人的發展。特別註意的是，即使日本人想將台灣人同化成日本人，但是不管這計畫成不成功，結果就會是日本人跟台灣人的社會地位不一。

事實上的問題其實很少，但是我認為來分析日治期台灣教育史的時候，應該要審察當時原住民的狀況、反應，然後跟整個政策比較。作者對「原住民教育」資料比較少，可能因文獻少，不至於寫一篇章（方在附件）。另外，一個很有趣的地方在社會同化方式，尤其是在雜婚（日本人跟台灣人及原住民）的立場，這樣的結婚方式應該比別的亞洲帝國主義下之殖民地還開放和寬鬆。最後，我不知當時的課本到底是何樣，如強調分析教育當局彙編的課本可能提供對日本教育性質多深入的瞭解，不隻在城市還有其鄉下的影響譬如：警察在非正式課程可以採用的教材及教具。除了這些小問題之外，這本書是一本很好的資料來源。

總結來說，此書原始資料蒐集豐富，並廣為徵引中、日、英文資料，且作者融會貫通。如果讀者想多瞭解日治期台灣教育史及政策，這本書可以說是基本知識，是不可或缺的作品。此書不惟給讀者當時寬廣調查，透過資料跟當代人的意見來看，作者也提供了精闢的分析。大體上，鶴見證明在殖民地時代日本是很獨一無二的，他們對台灣人提倡教育，特別是對女性們，也瞬間激發台灣人民對收到良好教育的渴望。

The irony of this new discovery is that for hundreds of years educators did seem to sense that children’s brains had to be built up through exercises of increasing difficulty that strengthened brain functions. Up through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a classical education often included rote memorization of long poems in foreign languages, which strengthened the auditory memory (hence thinking in language) and an almost fanatical attention to handwriting, … Then in the 1960s educators dropped such traditional exercises from the curriculum.

So what does this mean for me?

Well, I’m going to try an experiment in my free time to Chrono Trigger my way into traditional learning styles.

I am going to go through books that have classical poetry（陶淵明、四書、唐詩）in them, which have the bopomofo pronunciation guide along the edges (again, a reason I prefer bopomofo is the way it just fits with the text, rather than trying to shove pinyin along the edges or on top):

Such as 陶淵明 here (the poem is on the far right, my favorite of his, too by the way)

Now, while this book provides interpretations and notes, my focus is less on understanding it that way and more on “rote memorization” of these poems. While that may sound boring, it’s going to be great practice for reading out loud, reading out loud quickly (necessary for some of my courses), and getting a good feel for these works. Now, while I’m not a literature student, nor am I focusing on Classical Chinese, it is still something that I do need to get some practice with, and since I am still an early beginner I’m excited to see how this will improve, aid, or even inhibit my progress.

When going through this I will make sure to: 1) read it out loud, making sure my tones are accurate when doing so. I will, if time allows and if I’m in the mood 2) write it while reading it. From what I understand it was the combination of all three that were classically used, but sometimes I’m just not that good of a student.

Ideally, I will try to do this everyday, but this is very much based on my own reading and work that must be completed for my classes. But, hey, it’s a fun experience none-the-less!

Of course these methods are dated, old, and silly by many standards but as a history student I find trying to employ these classical methods fascinating.

That, my friends, is exactly why you need Tadoku.

Let Tadoku Get Back Into You Get Back Into Tadoku!

It’s registration time, and everyone knows the drill (you SHOULD by now!). If not, though, this entry outlines a lot of the basic rules as well as the registration procedure, which I’ll graciously put here:

Registering for Tadoku contests usually (unless I am unable to open them for some reason) starts 15 days before the start of the round and closes midway into the contest. Participants are restricted to 3 reading languages in order to ensure that they get to read extensively in each language.  When you sign up you will let the bot know you are registering by using the #reg tag followed by what languages(separated with a semicolon) you plan on reading in. Example:

“@TadokuBot #reg #lang1; #lang2; #lang3″

If you only intend on reading  Japanese you simply submit “@TadokuBot #reg”. This will set your language to JP automatically.

If you only plan on reading 2 languages simply remove “; #lang3″ from the first example : “@TadokuBot #reg #lang1; #lang2″.  Participants that only plan on reading one language (that isn’t Japanese) simply remove everything behind #lang1.  If your attempt to register is successful the bot should send you back a message confirming that you have registered.

Personal Goals

Well, I don’t have many goals or materials that I will have prepped to read. Most of my work will come out of my assigned readings–and this includes Classical Chinese and Japanese–so I will be going off of that. Not much time for other media, though I’ll stick in some video games and movies when I can.

Mostly, I am going this round to kind of gauge how much reading I actually do in a given month of graduate school in Taiwan, so I am kind of excited to see the results.

After reading through those entries, I finally decided to pick up the game. I couldn’t be happier, and I highly recommend getting it if you have an iPad and can spare the $17 for the game. This also works on the iPhone versions as well, though I could only afford one, and I just had to go with the iPad version since the game looks awesome on the screen. It also plays really well–no crashes and flows just fine.

At any rate, really, check out that blog. The author painstakingly types up major text for readers, as well as relevant vocabulary, pronunciation, and interesting tidbits throughout. I especially enjoy following the author’s train of thought as they, too, go through the learning process.

Check it out! The first entry starts here.

As the adage goes, “it has nothing to do with my degree!” It’s true, and I won’t argue or go into that, but it is assuredly less of what you study and more of who you are.

Of the three jobs I did have, however, only two were of more value to me, with the latter being the most interesting and valuable (as well as the one I am going to talk about in this entry). Of course I taught English, as will happen–but it is not a path you want to go on, don’t go there (depending on your goals, and of course, money is a stronger determiner in how things go for you). The latter job was your typical Taiwanese office job 9am-7:30pm kind of gig, I did some advertising work as well as translation and typical “We have a foreigner working here, BY GOD MAKE USE OF HIM” kind of work. I was the only foreigner there, so having an entirely Taiwanese coworker base was nice, and few spoke English, so it was good listening practice: business meetings in Chinese, as well as having to describe my own work and projects in Chinese to the rest of the staff–yeah, it was a blast.

Anyway, that was business. Recently, though, I got to do a job–pro bono–and it was a rare opportunity to work with a really local Taiwanese company that does road work.

I don’t know if it’s my New Jersey background, or The Boss ringing in my ears, but I always thought it would be kind of fun to try doing some road work or road construction. Plus, I like the idea of being outside and doing work, it kind of gets very tiring sitting inside and staring at a computer screen going through SRS stats. Ouch. My skin, she never looked paler!

Anyway, I got the chance to head off to outside of Taipei（臺北市）to Hsinchu（新竹市）, about an hour out of the city. We did work all over the place, including painting lines on the road in the Xiangshan area of Hsinchu（新竹市香山區）:

The road to be painted.

This is a big part of the reason that I did so miserable on Tadoku this round. I was mostly outside being immersed in different ways, though I did find the occasion to read:

The cutest way to write 電梯 (elevator) I've ever seen.

Along with painting lines on the road–you know, typical road painting type stuff–we also got to paint characters. This is was probably the most fascinating part to me. I thought they used stencils, and I assume some do, but generally it seems they just paint the characters out completely:

我要寫一個「慢」字！

And continue in, stroke after stroke, until the character is nearly completed:

And they said stroke order doesn't matter!

All in all it was an extremely rewarding experience, something I doubt I will get the chance to go again. While it was only a few short days, I picked up a lot of new vocab, as well as getting the chance to really improve my listening. Not even that, but I got a wicked tan from being in the sun all day, so handsome +1?

Time to pack up and go home and take an incredibly painful shower.

The other nice experience was being out in the countryside. Being in the city all the time gets a little tiring, plus people are less likely to just sit and chat with you since they’re in a hurry all the time, or it’s just way too busy. But, where I got to go for this work was out in the countryside, many places where foreigners would never go, and doing a job they’d never expect to see a foreigner doing. This led to a lot of people beeping the horn, waving, and smiling as they drove by; others offering Supau and other drinks since it was hot outside; and just getting the chance to chat with people made the entire experience very much worthwhile.

Of course the incredibly delicious food helped too.

So it was well worth it. Now I’ve got to get myself back into study mode as the next semester is about to come around.

And with Tadoku, just wait until the next round

Zhuyin Fuhao is better than Pinyin because of the following reasons:

Zhuyin was specifically designed with Mandarin Chinese sounds as its basis.
Pinyin, on the other hand, takes the Roman alphabet (inherently made for Western languages) and forced it onto the Chinese language.
The result is that, due to the nature of pronunciation of the Western alphabet, there are quite a few cases in Pinyin where the same sound in Chinese must be spelled differently depending on whether the sound occurs at the beginning or the end, or which consonant precedes it. This may not be clear to those who learn only Pinyin, but it is annoyingly clear to those who understand Zhuyin. It just feels like it’s designed for foreigners. Zhuyin, on the other hand, has exactly one character for each sound in Mandarin Chinese, and all words can be spelled by Zhuyin in exactly 3 characters or less, unlike Pinyin with its varying lengths. With Zhuyin, you understand the sounds better in a visual way because of its clarity in specifying the syllables which make up the sound for a word. It’s also easier to see the rhymes in poetry with Zhuyin. Besides, when you want to spell out the pronunciation of a word for someone, you can distinctly pronounce each character of Zhuyin Fuhao. With Pinyin, you actually have to spell it in Roman alphabet instead of saying the sound itself. Zhuyin also has the advantage that it can be written both horizontally or vertically (the traditional Chinese writing direction), and the length is always constant, as mentioned earlier.

It is also true that there needs to be a Romanization system for Chinese (for transliterating names, streets, businesses, etc). While Pinyin can serve that purpose well, I find the prevalence of the initial X very ugly and harsh. Wade-Giles romanization, on the other hand, feels softer, kinder and gentler, if you will. There is actually a system that has never been implemented called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS2), which is a romanization system. As somone who is fluent in both English and Chinese, I can tell you that MPS2 is better at approximating Chinese sounds. That is, if you ask an English speaker who knows nothing about Chinese to pronounce words spelled by Pinyin, Wade-Giles, and MPS2, the person will come closest to Chinese sounds when reading MPS2 than with the other systems.

On the topic of Traditional versus Simplified, there is just no comparison. Traditional Chinese has been a beautiful language for thousands of years. Simplified was unnecessarily implemented by the PRC in 1950. You want 5000 years of wisdom and elegance, or roughly 50 years of bastardization? It might be okay if they actually improved the language (very difficult to do), but the reality is that Simplified is so plainly ugly it is painful to see.

And a followup comment:

I have no problem with Simplified as a shorthand for hand-writing of personal notes. This was already done by people even before the systematic implementation of the invented Simplified Chinese. Historically, there has been a form of brush calligraphy called “grass style,” which can be very artistic and beautiful indeed. The key difference is, in the traditional shorthand, people used common sense simplification which are well known and did not systematically force the entire language into its present Simplified form. Even worse, Simplified Chinese did not just simplify but actually merged words, so you end up with “face” and “noodle” being the same word just because they have the same sound. Thus, without the one-to-one correlation, when Simplified documents are converted to Traditional, you can still end up with incorrect words left in Simplified form because the computer cannot tell the context of the word. Even humans do this; I have seen cases where people (who learned Simplified as a first language) think they are already writing in Traditional but still end up using the wrong words, leading to a mixed Traditional/Simplified form, which is wrong regardless of which side you prefer. I see this often on food labels from China meant for consumers abroad. In any case, I simply do not see the value of Simplified in printed form (on paper or electronic media). And simplifying handwriting need not be taught; it is something people will do naturally, depending on your level of comfort with the language (and your penmanship as well as experience in seeing other handwritings). In reality, personal notes can be simplified or not depending on the formality of the note (e.g. a shopping list versus a thank-you or condolence letter), and people really need to know how to write Traditional as a standard. Also, handwriting can be very “cursive” when written quickly while retaining the Traditional form.

Regarding the keyboard comparison, I think it’s more of a software design difference where you must enter the tone of the word. I would think Zhuyin again has the advantage since a maximum of 3 strokes plus a tone will give you the word, where Pinyin would likely require more characters. And the tone would serve to narrow down the list of words to choose from, making it faster and easier. If you are writing a sentence, you should know the tone of the words you are trying to say. Even if you get it wrong initially, it’s very easy to switch to another tone and pick from that list. I would think this is actually better for learning than having all the different tones on one list.

This also brings up the point about what is “best” for a language. When we ask what is “best” for the Chinese language, we should consider what is best for a native speaker, not what is best for an English speaker trying to learn Chinese. After all, people in England and the U.S. don’t waste their time asking how they can change or re-design English or its input system or phonetics so that it will be easier for Chinese to learn English. People in France also don’t spend time trying to make their language easier for the English to learn. Isn’t it true that German/Spanish/English have different keyboard layouts? Therefore, the Chinese should choose what is best for their own language as native speakers, including phonetics and keyboard layouts. When the Chinese want to learn English, they learn the English alphabet and the QWERTY keyboard. In fact, anyone trying to learn a language, any language, should try to learn it the same way as the native speakers do, not hope for some shortcut based on their own language. Some might argue that making Chinese easier for foreigners has advantages in making Chinese more accessible, but I think English has become such a common world language for business and other types of communication that people will need to use English anyways. To the extent that people will find knowing Chinese useful in their particular circumstances, they can learn Chinese as the natives do, just as they would for any other language. Having said this, of course it is fine for computer manufacturers and software developers and language specialists to come up with as many different types of input systems suitable for people with different backgrounds, locations, and preferences. I am only saying that, on the issue of adopting a standard phonetics system for education, China should do so based on the characteristics of the language and actual merits of usage, not on whether it would be more suitable for a foreigner. After all, there are a billion Chinese and only a much smaller number of foreigners trying to learn Chinese (and of those, most will not have to live with Chinese as their primary language day in and day out for the entirety of their lives). China chose Simplified and Pinyin, and I feel Traditional and Zhuyin would have been better.

I feel that both Simplification and Pinyin were the result of the Chinese feeling inferior to the stronger Western military and industrial strengths in the 20th century, and thus trying turn its back on its own culture and Westernize, when in fact, as we now know, Chinese culture is not the problem, and the language definitely isn’t the problem. Taiwan and overseas Chinese have blossomed magnificently by keeping their traditional language and culture, and China is now realizing this. In fact, Chinese culture and language is the underlying strength from which China is able to rise again from the rubbles of a difficult century. It’s time for China to take pride in its traditional culture (Confucian ethics of morality and greater harmony for mankind and nature) and language (Traditional character and the wealth of wisdom in Classical Chinese writings accumulated over many centuries). I think if Japan had not invaded China, the Communists might not have had a chance to gain power, and China today would already be a unified country using Traditional Chinese, so there would be none of the Taiwan/China and Traditiona/Simplified distinction, and Chinese culture would still be strong in the absence of the destructive Cultural Revolution. This is not to say China would not have had its share of problem and growing pains (getting rid of corruption and democratizing, etc), but it would have been better. The Communists tried to make the country better (and China did need to change and modernize), so I give them credit for trying, but Mao Zedong just made some really bad decisions with regards to language and culture.

Sorry for the diversion into some political history. I know this blog article is only about the phonetics system and learning a language. The language and cultural issues are quite related, so you’ll naturally see this kind of diversion in many discussion of the Chinese language, and blogs can often degenerate into name-calling shouting matches. I appreciate that you are keeping a civil tone in your space here. Thanks for listening.

Lately, I’ve been getting into using RSS to save a few websites that I like to read, as much as they offer RSS capabilities. While it’s a short selection, I keep them all organized within Google reader:

There’s still plenty more out there that I have yet to add. I had always wondered if there was a way to connect an RSS reader with Instapaper to automatically load the files into it. While there doesn’t seem to be such an automated system yet (aside from the apps Instapaper lists, but I haven’t had the chance to go through those), you can still go through Google reader and (begrudgingly) manually add the files to Instapaper. To quote the Instapaper blog:

Google’s new Send-to feature includes built-in support for Instapaper. Thanks, Google Reader team, for the inclusion in this handy feature.

Simply invoke the Read Later bookmarklet when you have an item in Google Reader selected, and Instapaper will automatically save that item. This even works on Google Reader’s iPhone version.

With this option you can send your articles from Google Reader to Instapaper to read it later, at your convenience. So, I will typically read articles I save over breakfast, on the MRT or between classes. It’s really quite convenient.

To set things up on the Google Reader end, Google provides some sort of not very clear instructions here. However, since you’re all handsome and smart lads, I’ll link you to a Chinese blog that provides much better instructions. At any rate, you can at least look at the pictures and figure out how to do it. Plus, as a bonus, another article from the same site that describes using Instapaper and Google Reader together.

Once it’s all set up, it’s nice to flip on my iPhone or iPad and have my articles all set up and ready for me to read. Plus, I can organize them in folders by language/subject:

Also, Instapaper provides a bookmarklet feature so you can instantly add any article that you’d like to read later, without having to go through the RSS feed process.

This is, of course, mostly based on iOS devices because I own those, though we know Instapaper works just as well with Android devices, too (though there is no “official” Instapaper app for Android, there are some 3rd party ones available). Plus, it can be exported to ePub, Kindle, HTML, Printable, CSV and other formats, too, while supporting wireless delivery to Kindle devices. All of this makes Instapaper it probably one of the most versatile read it later services available.

Update:

To quote a comment below:

Kendall 阿楓 (@LITMK)

Do you have an e-reader? I use calibre [http://calibre-ebook.com/ ] to instantly convert and sync my e-reader with my Google Reader account. It automatically converts my feeds to epubs and transfers them over!

Try it. Takes some figuring out, but well worth the effort!

I still have to try this out myself, but I wanted to share it with anyone else that might be interested in giving it a shot.