History of Chinese language

The Han people have their own spoken and written language. Chinese belongs to the Han-Tibetan language family. It is the most commonly used language in China, and one of the most commonly used languages in the world.
Written Chinese emerged in its embryonic form of carved symbols approximately 6,000 years ago.  The Chinese characters used today evolved from those used in bone and tortoise shell inscriptions more than 3,000 years ago and the bronze inscriptions produced soon after.

Drawn figures were gradually reduced to patterned stroke, pictographs were reduced to symbols, and the complicated graphs became simpler. Early pictographs and ideographs were joined by pictophonetic characters.

In fact, there are six categories of Chinese characters: pictographs, self-explanatory characters, associative compounds, pictophonetic characters, phonetic loan characters, and mutually explanatory characters.

Chinese words are monosyllabic. A large proportion of Chinese characters are composed of an ideogramatic element combined with a phonetic element.

There are about 56,000 characters, of which only about 3,000 are in common use. In addition to their functional value as symbols for records and communication, Chinese characters have an aesthetic value (e.g., calligraphy).

All of China's 55 minority groups have their own languages, except the Hui and Manchu, who use Chinese; 23 of these have a written form. Nowadays, classes in schools in predominantly national minority areas are taught in the local language, using local language textbooks. More resource

Benefits of Studying Chinese

Studying anything has many advantages, and languages are no different. There are personal and professional advantages to be derived from studying them. Right now in the world Chinese is moving itself into a position to be the dominant language and cultural force for the 21st century. So it follows that learning Chinese just makes sense because it will change your life. But what, specifically, can be gained from knowing how to communicate with these people?

Let's start with the most commonly cited reasons for studying Chinese:

1. China is the most populous country in the world with over 1.4 billion people. Mandarin is spoken by almost one billion people. It is the most widely spoken language in the world. One out of five people in the world is Chinese;

2. Mandarin is spoken in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, The Philippines, and Mongolia;

3. Knowing Chinese will allow students to compete effectively in the global economy of the future;

4. China is one of America's largest trading partners;

5. Many American companies do business in China, including Motorola, Coca Cola, and Ford;

5. Knowing Chinese may be an edge when competing for a job. The demand for business people who know Chinese is skyrocketing;

7. China is playing a major role in world affairs and will continue to do so;

8. A May 2006 Newsweek article stated that "In U.S. homes, Chinese has eclipsed French, German and Italian and become the third most commonly spoken language after English and Spanish;"

9. By studying Chinese, students will develop an appreciation for Chinese culture and history;

10. Leaning a second language develops critical and creative thinking skills.

(From: Chinese Language Association at www.classk12.org/bsc.htm)

Everyone knows these and has heard them several times. Let's start with the most obvious benefit in your life to learning Chinese -- the convenience of knowing the language. It opens more than 1 billion doors of communication. The Chinese are educated and sophisticated and getting to know them will make any one's life fuller and more interesting. Not too mention the travel possibilities. Being able to travel around China and see and experience their country and culture is an immeasurable benefit for a person's life. Once those doors are open what will you communicate about? Cultural exchanges, history, art, and of course business are four that readily hop to mind.

But there are other benefits too. For instance, a little less easy to see but just as important is that it creates choices. Access to a large part of Chinese culture is blocked from the average non-Chinese because only the books and other cultural aspects of the Chinese cultural heritage that someone thought might make a profit is available through translated works. The parts that have been made available don't even represent a fraction of a percent of what is really there. The lion's share is on a bookshelf waiting to be discovered. They are like diamonds that have been mined, polished, cut and begging to be re-discovered by the rest of the world.