Just that. Written English is phonetic, so I can easily read an unfamiliar word by sounding it out. Even though I don’t always get it right, usually I’m close enough to be understood.
How does this work in Chinese, or Japanese?
Edit – OK, yes I get it! English isn’t really phonetic. It’s just that when I was learning to read and write, our school used a method they called phonics. It must have confused the heck out of most kids, because they abandoned the method soon after, but it worked for me. We had a lot of practice in recognizing the various patterns words can take, and the many exceptions. So for me, who always did very well in English class, words tend to be easy to spell out.
I’m really glad not to have to figure it out as an adult, because I’m sure I’d be just as frustrated as some of you friends are! And I promise you that you are much better at English than I am at your language.
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Hmm as a native who learned it from Taiwanese grade school, literacy mainly comes from pattern recognition and iterative learning. There are a few simple words you learn and then construct meaning/pronunciation from the structure of the word, then necessarily when you read you will encounter even more characters that are entwined (because most words in Chinese is a pair of characters or more), learn their pronunciation from common speech, memorize its prototype and apply it to other words.
Also, whereas in the west most of grade school English is about grammar, syntax and new word/meaning construction, most of Chinese class is about rote memorization of characters and in what context you would use it in.
Finally, This is not a rule a but a trend but Chinese characters are usually made of one meaning radical and one pronunciation radical, and most of the time the pronunciation differs by one tone, so sometimes you can just guess and get it right.
Honestly because the text is idea based its actually really easy to comprehend and read Chinese. Its the writing that’s hard.
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