Comparison between Classical Chinese and Latin

Yeppi   Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:16 am GMT
Classical Chinese and Latin are dead languages.
In western world, schools don't force students to learn Latin, but why in Chinese used countries , Classical Chinese should be learnt forcefully?
Is it something about human rights?
Guapo   Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:20 am GMT
Maybe Human Rights Watch should pay attention to this!
Tionghoa   Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:30 am GMT
Just because we Chinese are intelligent enough to have the ability of learning Classical Chinese, and thanks to Characters system, to a large extent, Classical Chinese is much easier for us to learn than Westerners to learn Classical Latin or Classical Greek. It certainly has nothing to do with human rights, please remember that we're fed up with your Double Standard in all aspects.
uppa   Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:36 am GMT
Most Chinese are unwilling to learn Classical Chinese.
Just ask students there!
Don't pretend to be foolish!
Amnesty International   Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:39 am GMT
This is a clear case of human rights abuse.
Tionghoa   Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:43 am GMT
I'm not sure that you've already known what Double Standards actually mean. Just pay more attention back to those troubles in your own country, it's really a pity that you don't know clearly the truth while you're trying to act the fool to blame on China.
38   Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:26 am GMT
Classical Chinese is an evergreen tree while Latin is a deciduous tree.
guest   Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:47 am GMT
Classical Chinese is nonsense. It is not a true language. It's more like a code.
Tionghoa   Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:42 am GMT
Classical Chinese is not Modern Chinese (Mandarin), but thanks to Characters.

Classical Latin is not Vulgar Latin or its Descendants (Italian, Spanish, French).

Classical Greek is not Koine Greek or its Descendant (Modern Greek).

Classical Egyptian is also not Modern Egyptian Arabic (much too different).
Domine   Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:55 am GMT
">Classical Latin is not Vulgar Latin or its Descendants (Italian, Spanish, French).<"

Classical Latin (artifical - written by scribes and boule)
Vulgar Latin (spoken - plebeians and everybody else)

Spanish and Italian are considered to be the closest to Vulgar Latin.

">Classical Egyptian is also not Modern Egyptian Arabic (much too different).<"

Arabic does not stem (or related) from Ancient Egyptian; however, coptic does; which is the only surviving descendant, even though it is a liturgy language (nowadays) it came from the Ancient Egyptians.
Tionghoa   Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:58 am GMT
Arabic does not stem (or related) from Ancient Egyptian; however, coptic does; which is the only surviving descendant, even though it is a liturgy language (nowadays) it came from the Ancient Egyptians.
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Thanks, & I know that Ancient Egyptian is completely different from Arabic.
evergreen   Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:55 am GMT
Mandarin is a natural spoken language.

Classical Chinese is an artificial written language. It is not a real language and that is just a code system.

Written Mandarin and Classical Chinese are different written language.
8373   Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:27 am GMT
Greece have abandoned Ancient Greek and they don't force students to learn Ancient Greek. How about China?
Tionghoa   Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:45 am GMT
In the Mandarin textbooks for high school, several Classical articles are sandwiched as an introductory study, so that Chinese students won't fall into the condition of knowing nothing about Classical Chinese.
Tionghoa   Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:38 am GMT
In fact, "ancient colloquial chinese" isn't much easier to master than "classical chinese" due to its various pronunciation of quite a few characters, and nowadays, plentiful strong influence of "ancient colloquial" still remains deeply in most dialects, such as "cantonese, minnanese, teochewnese (a branch of minnanese), wunese (also called as shanghainese by some westerners), hakkanese", so, that's to say, classical chinese is just like classical Latin, and above mentioned chinese dialects can be compared to Italian, French, Spanish, or Romanian, though the differences between chinese dialects seem more noticeable than that between romance languages, however, mandarin seems "as if" it's another cup of tea, because it's neither ancient classical chinese, nor ancient colloquial chinese, but a modern chinese language which was affected, to an extent, by tungusic languages (for example: mongolian and manchurian) in phonetic system, and by occidental languages (especially english) in grammatical system, this may be the reason why it's quite easier for westerners to learn mandarin than cantonese, minnanese, or wunese, but thanks to such great functions of chinese characters, none of chinese dialects would be too hard to learn, as long as you could master basic character system to the best of your ability.