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Chinese is Easier than English: A Proof

August 31, 2006 on 7:12 pm | In Misconceptions |

A PROOF

A sentence which is easier in Chinese than it is in English

I will prove that Chinese is easier than English. First let’s start off with a thought, imagine that you have entered a classroom, you have taken off your shoes. Express this statement in Chinese and English. Which is easier to do?

wǒ tuō le xié zǒujìn jiàoshì。
我脱了鞋走进教室。

I-took off-shoes-go-enter-classroom
I took off my shoes and walked into the classroom.
I took off my shoes and entered the classroom.

A: Chinese version

我脱了鞋走进教室

In this Chinese sentence the only variable is the progression of time and the sequence of events. There is virtually no conjugation or tricky word forms. Just subject, verb and actions, and nouns. The verbs do not need conjugation, there are no tricky connector words. It’s about as simple as one could make it. There are about 15 components making up the hanzi, and about 7 words.

我 ….. subject, ( I )
脱了… first action, completed action, (remove)
鞋…… noun, (shoe)
走…… second action (go)
进…… third action (forward/into)
教室… noun, (classroom)

I-took off-shoes-go-enter-classroom
wǒ tuō le xié zǒujìn jiàoshì。

B: English version

I took off my shoes and walked into the classroom.

In the English version we are see that at almost every point in the sentence it’s necessary to make modifications and choices. Imagine doing this all in rapid-fire conversation, how can one do this?! When do I need a ‘the’? Why don’t I say “my pair of shoes”? There are 19 different letters and about 10 words several of which have irregular conjugations; take-took, I-mine-my, in-into, the classroom-a classroom-classroom.

I………… subject, must be converted, ie. from me, mine.
took off…. first action, must be made past tense, doesn’t follow ‘ed rule, exception. Plus this verb requires ‘off’.
my……… possession, need to add this as English is not context sensitive, must determine if it should be I, me, mine, my.
shoes……. noun, must be made plural of shoe, no need to indicate ‘pair’ of shoes in this situation
and……… this must be added because in English verbs can not just be strung together one after another
walked….. first action, must be made past tense to match first verb
into……… must be added to indicate direction
the………. must be added in front of noun, consideration of whether it is ‘a’, ‘the’, or nothing necessary. I don’t know why really, but you have to have ‘the’.
classroom…. 9-letters compared to 9 basic components within the Chinese hanzi 教室. Why two ’s’ and not one? Why is it not ‘class room’?

Proof: Since in this Chinese sentence I only require one variable, the progression of time and actions, and in the English sentence I require 8 modifications, I conclude that Chinese is an easier language than English.

Ref: A Crash Course in Chinese–Sentence Construction Patterns in Mordern Chinese. Ding Haosen. Shanghai 2004.