nPostednon April 20, 2015
n
n
n
n
ThenUnited Nations has two working languages, English and French, and sixnofficial languages, Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish,nand Chinese.
ThenUnited Nations has two working languages, English and French, and sixnofficial languages, Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish,nand Chinese.n
n
n
nInn2010 UNESCO established a language day for each of the six officialnlanguages. These language days celebrate multilingualism (speakingnmore than one language) and cultural diversity. They are supposed tonentertain and inform.
n
n
n
n
Todaynwas chosen to celebrate Chinese to pay tribute to the legendarynfigure Cangjie, who was supposed to have invented Chinese charactersnaround 5,000 years ago. The legend states that the Yellow Emperor wasndissatisfied with the rope-tying method of keeping records and askednCanjie to create characters for writing.
Todaynwas chosen to celebrate Chinese to pay tribute to the legendarynfigure Cangjie, who was supposed to have invented Chinese charactersnaround 5,000 years ago. The legend states that the Yellow Emperor wasndissatisfied with the rope-tying method of keeping records and askednCanjie to create characters for writing.n
n
n
n
n
n“ ThenChinese language” is actually a group of languages that, accordingnto some linguists, are even more different from one another thannFrench, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese are! Mandarin is by far thenmost spoken (and, I assume, the one that the U.N. Celebrates), withnaround 960 native speakers. Here are a few other Chinese languages:
n“ ThenChinese language” is actually a group of languages that, accordingnto some linguists, are even more different from one another thannFrench, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese are! Mandarin is by far thenmost spoken (and, I assume, the one that the U.N. Celebrates), withnaround 960 native speakers. Here are a few other Chinese languages:
n
n Wun– around 80 million native speakers
n
n Minn– around 70 million native speakers
n
n Yuen– around 60 million native speakers
n
n
n– Yue includes Cantonese
n
n
n
n
n
Altogether,nwith between 7 to 13 different forms of Chinese and a larger numbernof dialects, about 1.2 billion people (about 16% of the world’snpopulation) speak Chinese as their native language.
Altogether,nwith between 7 to 13 different forms of Chinese and a larger numbernof dialects, about 1.2 billion people (about 16% of the world’snpopulation) speak Chinese as their native language.n
n
n
nChinesenspeakers are spread out all over Asia and the world, with significantnnumbers in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, the U.S., Canada,nIndonesia, Philippines, and elsewhere.
n
n
n
nChinesenis tonal. That means that a word like “ma” can have multiplenmeanings depending on the tone, the high or low pitch, or the changenof pitch. Check out this Introduction to Tones!
n
n
n
n
n
nAlsonon this date:
n
n
n
n
n
nAnniversarynof the demonstration of the first American electron microscope
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
nAnniversarynof the start of Jacques Cartier’s Voyage of Discovery
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
nDetectivenStory Day
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
nPlannahead:
n
n
n
nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
n
- n
-
nApriln holidays
n
-
n
-
n
n
n
n
n
nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
n
- n
-
nMayn holidays
n
-
nMayn birthdays
n
-
nHistoricaln anniversaries in May
n
n
n
n
n
n
