Hello, I’m Lao Chen. Let’s talk about an interesting topic today. An American netizen asked if Chinese will be replaced by English. I was amused by this.
What are these American friends thinking? The Chinese language is the crystallization of our 5,000 years of civilization, how can it just disappear? But let’s not get angry, after all, they really do not understand. Today, I’ll analyze why it’s impossible for Chinese to be replaced by English.
Students, think about it, Chinese is not simply a language. It carries the cultural genes of the Chinese people and is the crystallization of the wisdom of our ancestors. The evolution of Chinese characters from oracle bone script to gold script, from small seal script to regular script is a living history of China. It’s hard for foreigners to learn the word “sun”, let alone understand the poetic meaning of “sun and moon shine together”.
Let’s talk about the expressive power of the Chinese language. Look at our idioms, four words can say a thousand words. Each one of them is a short story: “Lying on the bench, tasting gall, besieging Wei to save Zhao, singing in Chu on all sides”. If a foreigner wants to express these meanings, he may have to talk for a long time. The Chinese language is more sophisticated than any other language.
What’s more, the flexibility of the Chinese language is also outstanding. The same word “I” can have ten different meanings when spoken in different tones. How do you expect foreigners to express themselves? I’m afraid they can’t even hear it. And our dialects are even more colorful. You go to Guangdong to eat morning tea, to the Northeast to jerk skewers, to Sichuan to eat hot pot, listen to the local people speak, that is a fun. This linguistic diversity is a great treasure of our culture.
Some students may say, are not many people learning English now? Yes, it is necessary to learn, but it is for the purpose of communicating with the world. We learn English not to give up the Chinese language, but to let the world better understand China. Think about it, if foreigners are so happy to learn how to say hello, wouldn’t it be even better if we can speak fluent English?
Besides, how many foreigners are learning Chinese now? Confucius Institutes are spreading all over the world, and Chinese language fever continues to rise. Foreigners are clamoring to learn Chinese because they know that if they want to understand the world’s second largest economy, they can’t rely on English alone.
Interestingly, many foreign netizens have also come out to help us speak. A British guy said that Chinese characters are actually more advanced than English. He said that Chinese characters unified different dialects and allowed all Chinese people to communicate through writing. And Europe? Because it wasn’t standardized, so now it’s just a case of each one speaking his own language. Look, foreigners say so, what do we have to worry about?
There’s an American girl who found it hard to learn Chinese when she first started, thinking the characters were meaningless. But as she learned, she got the hang of it. She said, “If we change the Chinese language to make it suitable for foreigners, won’t we lose the essence of the Chinese language? This girl is very perceptive. She caught the key at once.
What do you think, classmates? Will Chinese be replaced by English? I can assure you, absolutely not! Not only will our Chinese language not be replaced, it will become stronger and stronger. Because it is not only a language, but also a culture, a wisdom and an inheritance.
So, students, let’s learn Chinese well and pass on our culture. At the same time, we should also learn English well, so that the world can hear our voices. Don’t you think so? Well, that’s all for today. See you next time!
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