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measuredingabens

Junior Member
Registered Member
FairAndUnbiased said:
it only means his Chinese skill is too low and that he can match native speakers only in everyday speech, not literary speech. Matching native speakers in everyday speech, even highly technical, only means that they are maybe middle school level.

Imagine if Putin wrote something like the below to Boris Johnson Liz Truss Rishi Sunak, as an example using western languages:

"I understand that you must navigate the Charybdis and Scylla of Ukraine with regards to domestic political constraints and the prospect of catastrophic escalation, but I warn that should you open Pandora's Box with further provocations, the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah may befall you. Retreat from the banks of the River Styx while you still can, or risk being swallowed by Cerberus."

If someone said that was "too hard" or "too opaque" to understand in English, that's their problem, not the writer's. Just because 90% of English speakers can't write like that, doesn't mean that it's bad writing.
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Chinese literary speech is something else. It makes use of a far larger variety of characters compared to everyday speech, which while not at all a bad thing does present a noticeable barrier to understanding for less fluent people. I'm fluent enough in everyday speech that I can engage in regular conversation but I am completely clueless the moment someone engages in literary speech or writing.
 
BoraTas

BoraTas

Captain
Registered Member
Biscuits said:
Living standards in vast majority of Europe is far better than in USA.
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Americans actually earn more than Western Europeans even when you deduct healthcare and education expenses, look at the median (so accounts for inequality), and adjust for PPP. But Europe is definitely much less stressful to live. Statistics on drug use, crime, mental illnesses, etc., are evidence of this. A bit higher living standards of the USA come with this:
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Thanks, but I'm not buying.
 
S

sndef888

Captain
Registered Member
Breadbox said:
I think people needs to have some realistic perspective on the world, I do not believe China or any Asian countries can ever compete with the Anglo colonies when it comes to standard of living. China is an old country where the land is near or at its carrying capacity for centuries if not millenniums.

The circumstances of Anglo colonies the likes of United States and Australia are extremely unique and irreplicable, they are recently formed country where the existing population had being completely wiped out and an entire continent worth of land and natural resources are appropriated by an extremely small number of European migrants. The Anglos colonies are infact the direct inspiration for genocidal policies of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and the former colonies are successful beyond their wildest dream.

This is the reason why the Anglo colonies could coast through any issues even if managed by complete morons, it has bugger all to do with liberalism or the other inane nonsense they spout and everything have to do with the genocidal efforts of their founding fathers that they now project onto every one of their competitors.
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I don't agree with that. Modern day standards of living and carrying capacity is caused by technological and social development a lot more than land and natural resources. I believe Chinese tech and social development is going to become better than the west, which will allow Chinese to live better lives in the long run. Take a look at how China already overtook the US in life expectancy, has less crime, less likely to get attacked as an asian etc.

The only exception will be housing sizes. China won't have landed suburbia that stretches on for eternity. But then again, house size is not directly proportional to being good. I would rather live in a nicely designed apartment with a pool and gym located next to a train station than a suburban house in the middle of nowhere.

Anglo consumption levels are currently overinflated due to currency hegemony that allows them to physically consume far more than their output is actually worth. But even then it doesn't always translate into actually better standards of living. Take food for example, Americans can consume far more meat than other countries cheaply, but does that make it better than developing countries' cuisine? No, Chinese food is already far better in terms of variety and taste.

Currently, I think living in China is still marginally worse than in anglo countries thanks to this consumption power difference. But imagine a China with double of its current GDP per capita. It would still only be 1/3 of anglo GDP per capita I would bet it would already be a much nicer place to live.
 
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FairAndUnbiased

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
measuredingabens said:
Chinese literary speech is something else. It makes use of a far larger variety of characters compared to everyday speech, which while not at all a bad thing does present a noticeable barrier to understanding for less fluent people. I'm fluent enough in everyday speech that I can engage in regular conversation but I am completely clueless the moment someone engages in literary speech or writing.
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its not that bad, 文言文的基本原则就是“言语从简”。写时下笔有神，惜字如金，读时句斟字酌，方能理解文言文。
 
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