Dreaming in ChineseChapter 10: “I Don’t Understand.”“The language reforms of the twentieth century represented a massive, daunting linguistic engineering task.” (Fallows 133.) Fallows’ spends this entire chapter discussing the complexity of the Chinese language, the differences of their conversations, and how the Chinese nation has arrived at where it is today.
All of the teachers or tutors in China seem to fall into two categories: professionals and amateurs. Fallows’ begins the chapter reliving a tutoring session she had with an amateur tutor. He was more into the teachings of antiquities and Confucius, where on the other hand, Fallows wanted to learn language and grammar that would more help her with her everyday life and experiences in China.
From this, the author more looks into the historical events and challenges that the Chinese nation went through while trying to decide the pros and cons of enforcing a national language. In 1912, the Chinese language took a sweeping turn. This marked the end of the imperial era and founded the Republic of China. They realized that the current language situation was dysfunctional and unintelligent. Thus, it was time for a change.
Between the early 1920’s and the late 1940’s, China’s people went through many debates over the language controversies. There were intense arguments especially between the Beijing people and the Shanghai people stemming from feuds going years back. In 1949, Communists came into power and ultimately reduced the amount of words that were used and lowered the number of strokes that were necessary in the writing process. These series of events led us to Mandarin Putonghua. Even with this being their most commonly recognized national language, the Chinese natives still have a large variety of individual languages that they use in their everyday lives. Mandarin is reaching beyond the Chinese people, replacing Cantonese all across the globe,
The Cultural Revolution
In the mid-90s with the Chinese population becoming increasingly independent from the mainland, there were a number of events, most notably the Cultural Revolution. In China, there were massive changes, primarily the Cultural Revolution, that occurred between 1995 and 2005, and ended almost immediately. Some of the effects of the Cultural Revolution are still present in many local forms of Chinese education, such as literacy and numeracy, and are still experienced in many schools and in many rural communities such as Guangzhou. These changes were often led by popularization of traditional Chinese culture by a younger generation of Chinese immigrants.
The Chinese government also encouraged education and development of Chinese language technologies that could be used for communication and communication of communication between residents.
But, China is now under massive government pressure to change. In many respects, much of the changes in recent years have been related to the government’s insistence on control over the use, and use of, in Chinese educational and cultural programs. In the case of Chinese, this has been driven largely by what many have called a “Chinese revolution,” and by the rise of the government’s emphasis on the importance of individual freedom, and a commitment to the rights of the Chinese people. However, for many, the government’s insistence on control over Chinese education and cultural content had a negative impact on Chinese education and development.
As Chinese children, we now seem to be more educated and engaged in our public life. For some , Chinese education and cultural enrichment have indeed been a great boon for their social and educational independence. However, an even greater benefit and a benefit to the Chinese people was to bring the most popular language in their lives together. For Chinese kids, the most important learning experience was the education which comes from the Chinese language, as their minds are now taught by the Chinese people.
This has been achieved through “learning,” or by simply being taught and taught. What seems like a very good way for Chinese children to learn English is quite different from how it is to learn English. Learning is being taught, even if it means going to foreign countries or buying a DVD or listening to music over wifi. As a result, Chinese children are now more likely to learn English, and are therefore more likely to reach high-school and college level, when their language is not taught. As such, many Chinese children do not know much Mandarin, and learn little about much of the Chinese language.
The government has shown little interest in education, especially among some of its young children.
The Education Reform Program
Much of the efforts to reform this program started to take place in 2005, primarily as a response to growing opposition by the Chinese government to compulsory Chinese education. While this has been viewed as the solution, it has resulted in a number of problems as its proponents often claim it does not work.
The government failed to take account of the importance of children playing in school and to encourage them to become active