Putonghua, or “ordinary language”, is the Chinese word for modern Mandarin. But it is much, much more than that.
In the 1950s, while the top communist leaders were destroying the country economically and culturally, some others were actually trying to improve things. At that time, the Chinese people spoke hundreds of local dialects and one region’s language was incomprehensible to another’s. The vast majority of common people couldn’t read or write Chinese characters. To raise literacy and improve communication, the government introduced Putonghua.
Putonghua has three main features:
- Simplified characters
- Standard pronunciation ( a variant of the Beijing dialect)
- Pinyin (roman letters and tone markings indicating the precise pronunciation)
Nowadays, most regional Chinese still speak their local dialects among themselves, but when they need to they can also speak the national language, Putonghua, and read and write simplified characters.
In my book, Chinese by Numbers, I have studiously avoided using the traditional, more complex version of Chinese characters. My reasoning is this. Only foreign Chinese and the Chinese of former foreign colonies and Taiwan continue to cling to traditional characters. But to me, with 1.4 billion Chinese using simplified characters the other 50 million or so seem inconsequential. My other reason is this. Even the Chinese had to simplify their language so that the vast majority of people could learn to read and write. I am a foreigner, what hope would I have with traditional characters! Actually, ninety percent of simplified characters are the same or very similar to their complex versions.
Besides the above, Putonghua is a package. If you want to speak the language of China, use the written language of China, not some other place. If your Chinese teacher is teaching you traditional characters, ask them why.
Another way of looking at this is to consider the English language either written in gothic script or modern printing. If you picked up an historical manuscript from England in the sixteenth century, you would still be able to make out the words, you would appreciate the beauty of the script, you would acknowledge the historical and cultural importance of that document, but you would not want to go back to using that day-to-day.
So I love Putonghua because it is comprehended by all Chinese when spoken or written.
But I felt that there was just one thing missing from Putonghua and that was a better way to find Chinese Characters. Though modern Chinese generally master the 4000 to 5000 characters they need for everyday use, they still need to look up dictionaries for the other rarer characters that they may not have memorised. Then even they have to identify the radical, count the strokes in the radical and the remainder of the character, and search through the radical index at the front of their dictionaries.
Now, non-Chinese have an advantage over the native-speakers, as they can use my book, Chinese by Numbers, to speed up their search.
Read other pages on this site for more information, or make an online purchase and see for yourself.
Available from:
http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Numbers-ultimate-method-characters/dp/1922022241
http://www.bookdepository.com/Chinese-by-Numbers-David-Pearce/9781922022240
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chinese-by-numbers-david-j-pearce/1110603411?ean=9781922022240
Australian sales:
http://www.vividpublishing.com.au/chinesebynumbers/
UK sales:
Chinese by Numbers 