I am currently in China for a holiday. I can read chinese (learnt it since I was young), but I have never actually used Chinese - my parents simply made me learn it on the off chance I would need to go to China.
I have for the first few days found some difficulty, but reading has since became relatively easy. Chinese is a contextual language, and contextual cues gives rise to understanding of the word that you don't really know. Sure I have to look up some words/phrases (especially adult ones because they all seem to be slang terms), but it is quite easy to read.
I agree with his other points up to too many romanization processes. There is one: Hanyu Pinyin. Others are old, and should be discarded.
The bit about tonal language has led to some rather hilarious situations where I accidentally sexually propositioned to someone else. However, upon arriving in Luoyang, I realize that Chinese being a tonal language doesn't really matter. Accents exist, and they change the tone of the language. And yet I still could, after a bit of adjusting, get used to them
I have for the first few days found some difficulty, but reading has since became relatively easy. Chinese is a contextual language, and contextual cues gives rise to understanding of the word that you don't really know. Sure I have to look up some words/phrases (especially adult ones because they all seem to be slang terms), but it is quite easy to read.
I agree with his other points up to too many romanization processes. There is one: Hanyu Pinyin. Others are old, and should be discarded.
The bit about tonal language has led to some rather hilarious situations where I accidentally sexually propositioned to someone else. However, upon arriving in Luoyang, I realize that Chinese being a tonal language doesn't really matter. Accents exist, and they change the tone of the language. And yet I still could, after a bit of adjusting, get used to them