The Pen Matters
January 25th, 2007 by MarkDoes the ability to write with a pen and paper matter? Apparently not, to quite a few Chinese as a second language learners. “Nobody really writes by hand anymore,” says one.
“Writing by hand is useless; I can just type everything at my computer,” explains another.
I disagree both arguments. While it is possible to get by without the ability to write by hand, it’s also possible to get by without learning Chinese at all. In fact, I know foreigners who have lived here for nearly two decades and who speak less Chinese than most students do after a single year. One of them was even my former boss. He got by just fine. The existence of people such as him is evidence that having fully functional language skills means something more than just being able to survive in a Chinese speaking city. Being fully functional in a language means using it to accomplish whatever daily tasks one chooses, not choosing daily activities based upon the limits of one’s language skills.
It is conceivable, that the day will come when computers are so ubiquitous and so convenient to use that the pen and paper will no longer serve any utilitarian purpose. Like the calligrapher’s brush and ink, the pen and paper will be cast aside, with only a small number of people of an artistic bent or with an interest in history using them at all. Has that day come yet? The best indicator is to look at what people who don’t have any interest in history or art do. Look at what those who just want to get on with their lives do, or better yet, look at what businesses do. Businesses aren’t run for aesthetics or culture. Businesses are all about utility. See if businesses still bother stocking those outmoded and archaic pens and pencils. I suspect that any business you might inspect would still use them, regardless of whether it were a Chinese or western company, and regardless of how high or low-tech their operations might be.
When is the last time you, yourself, used a pen or paper? Unless you are an exception, you used one yesterday. Odds are also overwhelmingly high that you didn’t go a single week in all of last year without using a pen or paper. This also suggests that the pen and paper still have some utility that computers haven’t yet been able to match. One significant feature, is that they are portable and don’t require a power source. Taking notes on a laptop during a meeting might not be too bad, but for writing down what toppings your friends want on a pizza, using computer would likely be slower than the traditional approach. Another advantage of the pen and paper is that they are less restrictive: while typing this essay, I have no choice but to make each letter the same size, and to put them into neat rows. While it would be possible use different font sizes or format a web page to display my writing a bit differently, it would be very difficult to circle various words, draw arrows from one word to another, or to draw a brainstorming diagram. Each of those techniques is both useful and common for pencil and paper users.
Why is it then, that so many people would claim that being able to write Chinese doesn’t matter? My guess is that it’s just because learning how to write in Chinese is a pain in the ass and people want a reason not to do it. That’s fine, and I can understand the desire completely. There’s nothing ignoble at all about not learning how to write Chinese characters. For that matter, there’s nothing ignoble about not learning Chinese at all.
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January 25th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I think that it might not “matter” and be justifiable based on what you want out of the language. If your only goal is to get survival skills and pick up girls in a bar then you probably don’t need to learn how to write.
Just like you, I’ve met several long term expats in Korea who don’t have any Korean language skills and not only don’t have them they don’t want to learn the language. I don’t understand this, but I’m sure they have somehow justified it to themselves.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:37 am
suggestion - I didn’t notice the Notify me of followup comments via e-mail checkbox until after I submitted my comment. It would be easier to notice if it was next to the fields above the comment box.
January 25th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Chinese is kind of a special case. Some people learn how to speak, understand, and read it very well, but are still unable to write very much at all. Some of those who feel that writing doesn’t matter don’t fit the bar-hopping expat mold at all.
January 25th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I regret not being taught to write beautifully, and would much rather have studied the art of the pen (or brush if you’re Chinese) than, say, Geography. I think it is the most useful expression of art because we use it almost everyday, whether it is simply writing our signature or something more extended. It’s much easier, after all, to take out a pen than a canvas with oil paints and brush. Further, a lot of handwriting is simply illegible, sometimes to the author himself.
Not only does poor penmanship contribute to inefficiency, it can be deadly. According to one report (link below), unreadable prescriptions contribute to medical mistakes resulting in up to 98,000 deaths in America a year.
Strangely, I’ve always found the Chinese and Japanese write English words and numbers more clearly and proportionately than Westerners. Perhaps it’s because they study calligraphy.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/04/doctors.handwriting.ap/index.html
January 25th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I find that it’s not only foreigners but also Taiwanese who question my desire to learn to write Chinese characters. If they see my Chinese writing, they first comment on how beautifully I write. Experience has taught me that the handwriting of the average Taiwanese is nearly unreadable, especially as the number of strokes grows, so I can understand their amazement at my neat attempts at writing. Then, they ask me why I want to learn to write, since I “don’t need to write.”
I often find it hard to explain to people, but I like the way you have put it. I can “get by” just fine without writing, just as I was able to get by in my first year here without knowing much Chinese at all. However, I don’t like being limited by an inability to write. I want to be able to fill out my own forms, write down important information when I’m not near a computer, and someday give handwritten correspondence a try. Maybe it’s the Capricorn in me, but personally, not learning to write would feel like a half-assed attempt at learning the language. What’s more, learning to write the characters makes learning to read them seem like a breeze. I know that for many people, writing is unimportant, but I’m glad that when I first started learning Chinese, I decided to make writing a priority.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I’d be careful about basing any goals on what Taiwanese people tell you. Many people told me my “Chinese was good enough for a foreigner”, even back when I couldn’t read anything, or even understand much of a simple children’s cartoon. I could order food at the breakfast shop and that was “good enough”.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Well, of course being able to write in Chinese is a valuable skill. But I think the effort/utility equation is too lopsided for many to make it a priority. Of course, this is a decision only the individual could make, and Taiwanese people who try and dismiss your efforts because “you don’t need it” should be thoroughly ignored. It is especially churlish to say things like that after somebody have put in the considerable effort to learn characters. Way to be supportive, guys.
But back to the subject on hand: If I could not read Chinese, I would feel immobilized. I would not be able to do my job. I would be cut off from the outside world in Taiwan. Not being able to write more than a small fraction of characters, on the other hand, is only a mild annoyance. When I write notes for myself, I use English or bopomofo. I can’t remember the last time I had to write a note for others. Whenever I have to express myself at length in written Chinese, I do it on the computer. In fact, just about all of my non-verbal communication with others is done via computer anyhow.
I am actively trying to get better at it, but it’s more for personal reasons. To me, there’s nothing wrong with somebody saying “I really want to get good at spoken Chinese. I also want to improve my reading. Writing, however, is not a priority because I don’t think it will be that useful to me.” To me, that’s not flaky at all.
January 26th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I wasn’t implying that it was flaky in the slightest to not learn how to write. I don’t even think it’s flaky to avoid learning Chinese at all. Considering how many Taiwanese people want to speak English and the difficulty of learning a tonal language, “effort/utility equation” is too lopsided for a lot of people to bother with Chinese at all. This is especially true for western-looking people, who aren’t really expected to speak Chinese, and business people who just weren’t hired for their language skills.
Still, for someone who wants to be fully functional in Chinese, as opposed to relying on English, writing is part of the package. When’s the last time you used a pen or paper?
January 26th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I use pen and paper every day…mostly pinyin and english though. Even if my Chinese is good enough to take notes in chinese, it’ll be too slow for me. Developing the ability to write chinese quickly and legibly is a whole nother difficult hurdle…I think I’d rather use the time to study a english based shorthand system like Teeline when it comes to helping my work. I think most people who make the argument that they don’t need to learn how to write chinese because they can type are not saying that they never use pen and paper, but that they use pen and paper for the kind of notetaking they don’t find rewarding to do in Chinese in a way that they find using chinese in conversation or reading rewarding!
January 26th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Your work is writing English. It probably calls for even less Chinese writing than mine does. I still have to write the occasional note for the secretary or a few key words on here and there on the whiteboard for the low level classes.
I guess I’m pretty unusual in having the desire to wean myself off of using English as a crutch. Still, my hope is to study in a completely Chinese environment when I go to grad school, someday. Hopefully, I can work in a Chinese environment at some point after that.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Nice post, this is an issue that I think about (agonize about) almost every day. I HOPE that being able to write Chinese on a computer is good enough, but I suspect that at the highest level (associating with literature professors etc.) not being able to write characters would be an embarassment. But still I really doubt that I’m diligent enough to learn to write by hand.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Well, doing my job does require a whole bunch of word processing in Chinese actually — I will not be able to get by at all without the ability to send email to people in chinese, write the names of people, laws and places in Chinese, doing searches in Chinese etc. etc., even though the writing is in English.
The point is, with prevalence the computer, I can get away with not knowing how to write Chinese properly and still do my job prperly in a way I would not have been able to otherwise. I suspect that is true for a lot of other people too.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Of course, I think it’s great that you’re trying to learn characters. My notes are actually peppered with chinese characters even though they slow me down because I’m trying to practice…but I think that those who read and speak chinese well but relies on a computer to type should be considered pretty darn functional in Chinese too unless you have a conception of ‘functional’ that’s pretty darn pendantic.
January 28th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
“Odds are also overwhelmingly high that you didn’t go a single week in all of last year without using a pen or paper.”
Sure Mark. But a lot of this casual use involves writing down contact information, numbers or copying characters from a text/sign/email. I use pens every day, but can’t remember the last time I’ve NEEDED to write something non-trivial by hand in Chinese without any reference. So while knowing HOW to write is very important, I’m not sure I’d really put the emphasis on it that you do in this post.
January 28th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
To clarify, I’m not saying that writing is as important as reading, listening or speaking. In fact, in terms of the return on one’s time, I’d rank their importance in the exact opposite order.
What I am saying, is that many people underestimate the value of writing because they can compensate for their writing deficiencies by
I fully believe that the day will come when the pen is obsolete from a functional stand-point. That day may even come sooner for Chinese users than it will for users of phonetic alphabets. It hasn’t come yet, though.
February 5th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Happened to have found this site by searching the keywords “pen matters”; I am recently building a site with help of a Ducth friend about a penpal projects, it could either be ESL purpose or getting and reminding people go back to Good Old Days of pen and paper…
“When was the last time that you, yourself, used pen and paper..”? This phrase is fairly good though…I shall have to use this for my AD if I may ;p
anyways, writting is classical and humane….
in respect of writting Chinese, I guess it’ll be easier for you guys start learning simplified Chinese rather than traditional version… but there would be problems still…since those taiwanese cannot read simplified version…
谢谢大家
March 19th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I am not surprised you feel the way you do. Writing has a sense of accomplishment in it. I tried learning a bit of Japanese, just to get a feel for the language in its spoken and written forms. It gave me a better appreciation for writing. Its just too hard for me to render Japanese on a keyboard and I find its slower than just writing with pen and paper.
Since then, I’ve been researching for a more efficient way to write English. I thought Tengwar woudl be a good idea, but both Teeline and Speedwriting interest me a lot more. They’re easier and there doesn’t seem to be a LOT to memorise. I want a system that can be used consistently and is easier. I’m really not caring if it can be done on a computer [but it would still be nice] as I’m more into the writing aspect of it. Let’s face it, I think faster than I write. That makes it hard for me to write my fiction and poems. It seems the pace of the modern world has ruined my mind that way. If I lived in a pre-computer world, maybe my mind wouldn’t think this fast. I’ve yet to know [since I haven't learned nor practised them yet] if systems of writing for the deaf are quicker and/or easier. If anybody knows where I can find Teeline and Speedwriting fonts, I’d appreciate it.
Mark, you have a LOT of respect from me. Chinese is supposed to be really difficult to learn, possibly more difficult than Japanese. I glance at Chinese and I just go all dizzy-eyed. [giggles] Its beautiful, its pretty, its artistic in many ways, but you might as well bam my head with a Chinese dictionary.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:24 am
I lived in Taiwan for just over five years and would have stayed longer were it easier to get visas and non-teaching jobs. I started studying Chinese language and culture at a university after one year in Taiwan. I feel it is an absolute necessity to learn the host country’s language and that includes reading and writing ( with a pen not a computer). One of the most gratifying times was when speaking Chinese and seeing the smile on the Taiwanese person’s face. Another of my most gratifying moments is when my writing of Chinese Characters became more like writing and less like drawing. If you don’t learn these things, you’ll never really be a part of that country.