Side Note on the Chinese Language

I saw two interesting articles on the Chinese language I thought I would share.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/world/asia/21china.htmlThe first is about trying to restrict unique family names in China. One Interesting fact, "By some estimates, 100 surnames cover 85 percent of China’s citizens. Laobaixing, or “old hundred names,” is a colloquial term for the masses. By contrast, 70,000 surnames cover 90 percent of Americans."

I even have two students with the same English name, so I have Big Gary Chen and Little Gary Chen.

The second article discusses simplified versus traditional characters. I live in Taiwan where we only use traditional characters.