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.
In: Other
They don’t.
Being a logographic language, written Chinese takes more time to learn, since you can’t sound out the words. However, it allows people who can’t understand each other’s spoken language to communicate through writing.
A Mandarin speaker might not be able to talk to a Hokkien speaker. But they can both read the same language. Since each would read the words in their own dialect.
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