The agonies of an ABC learning Chinese
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As most readers of Language Log know, ABC means "American-born Chinese". Depending upon how (in)sensitive their parents are, learning Chinese can be hell, and leave them scarred for life.
The actors in this video are brilliant and the tale it tells reveals so much about the trials and pitfalls of learning Chinese overseas.
If only little Paul's dragon mom had let him learn "xuéshēng" for "student" instead of 学生 or 學生, he would have been literate in Chinese within a month, rather than never.
Selected readings
- "Pinyin for ABCs" (6/14/20) — also brilliant! must watch!
- "Linsanity" (2/16/12)
- "Writing Sinitic languages with phonetic scripts" (5/20/16)
- "The Westernization of Chinese" (9/6/12)
- "Pinyin memoirs" (8/13/16)
- "Pinyin for the Prez" (10/25/18)
- "Pinyin in practice" (10/13/11)
- "The impact of phonetic inputting on Chinese languages" (12/9/19)
- "Pure Pinyin" (10/15/16)
- "Pinyin vs. Sinographs" (7/20/19)
- "Too tired to love: new set phrases in Pinyin" (12/23/19)
- "Pinyin for phonetic annotation" (10/27/18)
- "The uses of Hanyu pinyin" (5/22/16)
- "On not speaking Taiwanese" (12/2/18)
- "Receptive multilingualism" (11/27/18)
- "The future of Chinese language learning is now" (4/5/14)
- "Firestorm over Chinese characters" (5/23/16)
- "Backward Thinking about Orientalism and Chinese Characters" (5/16/16)
- "Chinese character inputting" (19/17/15)
- "Stroke order inputting" (10/30/11)
- "Cantonese input methods" (1/20/15)
- "Google Translate Chinese inputting" (1/27/13)
- "Creeping Romanization in Chinese" (8/30/12)
- "Chinese Typewriter" (6/30/09)
- "Chinese typewriter, part 2" (4/17/11)
- "Abandoning one's mother tongue" (1/6/17)
[Thanks to rit malors]
Mark Liberman said,
June 6, 2025 @ 3:50 pm
Compare "No sabo kids", 9/16/2023. And the relevant YouTube collection…
Jonathan Smith said,
June 6, 2025 @ 4:58 pm
ruguo bei zhidao wo bu renshi Zhongwen you mei shi 如果被知道我不认识中文又没事 etc. etc. Yikes, same guy wrote the titles.
Re: "literacy" in pinyin — problem is there's almost nothing to read.
Wonder why the Chinese / Chinese-American gehe 隔阂 'estrangement barrier' should be so profound, a phenomenon which leaves the latter "diasporic" community on rather a lonely island given persistent flagrant othering/racism in the U.S… I guess that it is at least on balance an economically prosperous island?
Speaking of which why is the Chinese (admittedly kinda niche) term Huayi Meiguoren 华裔美国人 (lit. 'American of Chinese ancestry') better than English "Chinese American" and way damn better than "American-born Chinese" which is practically scandalous… mysteries.
Victor Mair said,
June 6, 2025 @ 7:56 pm
Where was Hebrew literature before 20th-century Hebreew speakers started to write it?
Victor Mair said,
June 7, 2025 @ 4:24 am
And how much Hangul writing was there at the beginning of the 20th century, compared to how much Hangul literature there is now, such a proliferation, in all genres.
Fen Yik said,
June 7, 2025 @ 4:42 pm
CBC here. My "dragon mom" taught my brother and me to read using a bilingual takeout menu instead of flash cards. Much more practical. Nowadays, we can both read more than just menus, but my brother is still most comfortable with food-related characters.
And Hanyu Pinyin wouldn't have worked for us back then. Like much of the older Chinese diaspora in North America, we grew up speaking Cantonese at home and didn't learn Mandarin until later in life.
David Morris said,
June 7, 2025 @ 5:39 pm
Most of the menus I (totally non-Chinese) have seen at Chinese restaurants in Australia have Chinese and English texts *and* pictures, and some have a number for each each item.
Victor Mair said,
June 8, 2025 @ 6:04 am
@Fen Yik:
"Hanyu Pinyin wouldn't have worked for us back then"
There have been romanization schemes for various Sinitic languages, including Cantonese. for three centuries and more.
Chris Button said,
June 8, 2025 @ 11:43 am
On the topic of the same acronyms with different meanings, which came up in a recent LLog topic, ABC also means Australian-born Chinese.
And ABC of course also refers to a TV broadcaster in Australia and the US. Then Britain has BBC for British-born Chinese and the TV broadcaster. Same with CBC in Canada too …
Philip Taylor said,
June 8, 2025 @ 4:06 pm
"Then Britain has BBC for British-born Chinese and the TV broadcaster" — but do we, Chris ? Before reading this thread, I had no idea that "ABC" could mean "American-born Chinese", but not being American I assumed that American readers might well recognise it as such. But I am British, and while I recognise "BBC" as an abbreviation for [the] British Broadcasting Corporation, I have never encounted it with the meaning "British-born Chinese".
Chris Button said,
June 8, 2025 @ 6:53 pm
@ Philip Taylor
It was certainly in use a couple of decades or so ago. No idea about now, but the internet suggests that people still use it today.
Chas Belov said,
June 10, 2025 @ 7:17 pm
@David Morris
I (also non-Chinese) sometimes attempt to read Chinese-only menus which are often posted on the walls of restaurants. And usually encounter bilingual menus.
But yesterday I encountered a modern tablet menu in Chinese. Rather than hold things up by attempting to read it – since I was standing at the register for a to-go order – I asked the staff member assisting my order to switch it to English, which they quickly did.
adina said,
June 10, 2025 @ 9:14 pm
"Where was Hebrew literature before 20th-century Hebreew speakers started to write it?"
People have been writing books and poems in Hebrew throughout the diaspora, for thousands of years, so I'm not sure why this nonsequitor exists.
Littary said,
June 11, 2025 @ 9:13 am
“If only little Paul's dragon mom had let him learn "xuéshēng" for "student" instead of 学生 or 學生, he would have been literate in Chinese within a month, rather than never.”
Yes, in this way, Paul may be able to "read" those pinyin within weeks but can he really understand the meaning?
Just as many people always claim that "English is very easy, just 26 letters…"