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Q: A modern writing system less practical than Chinese characters?
Do you know a modern writing system that is less practical/ takes more time to memorize than Chinese characters?
Probably none, is my answer to the title question.
To be fair, the Chinese (authentic, traditional) written language is never known for its simplicity or practicality. It is known for its ability to capture abstract concepts such as beauty. It is primarily an artists' language.
Take for example, water, is pronounced as "shui". It is on purpose pronounced like "shhhhh", the sound of running water. The written part is [ 水
Shuǐ ]. What does it look like? Rivers spreading outward. This is all on purpose and not some morons making up these characters while drunk.
What does that tell you? It has phonetic, imaginative (pictorial, visual), and logical elements all bundled into one. Not all characters have all three aspects, but most have one or two.
Years ago the Japanese did an experiment with Japanese kids. They found out the ones who studied Japanese with Chinese characters (called kanji) scored a higher IQ than the control group who only studied pure Japanese. The explanation above came from the Japanese. Traditional chinese characters encourage both left and right brain development, imagination and logic simultaneouly.
The teacher is crucial in this kind of teaching. If s/he just says, "this is the way to write it, do it or ........" then all the benefits are lost. It means the teacher has to be 1). very knowledgeable, 2). patient, and 3) is well aware of the significance of his/her teaching ---- to stimulate a kid's full brain operation.
Well, too bad, I have never heard or seen Chinese (authentic) characters taught this way, word by word with clear explanation of why it is written like that. Heck, it is the Japs who comes up with the whys! 
Notice, the Japanese used traditional chinese (written) language in that experiment. Kanji uses traditional written chinese all the time anyway. PRC's version has stripped away these advantages because they took out all the strokes they call "complicated" and "redundant". So all you see with this "simplified" written chinese is just an empty shell without soul or artistic flavors.
I try to locate articles on that experiment on the internet but can't find any. I read it in hardcopy, probably it is so "out of date" no one puts it on the internet. Sorry.
Here is an article on a similar trend of thoughts. For those who are teachers or just out of curiosity, it still provides a good read. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/08/why-do-japanese-children-lead-world-numeracy-literacy
Shining_brow:
Perhaps the best example of how the PRC pulled the real heart and spirit out of traditional characters, is that the 'heart' xin/心 character was removed from the character for 'love' - ai 爱.
maybe some others Thai it,,, haha ,,, ok,, I'll not pun ish you anymore.
but once u reach the pinnacle of inefficiency does it matter that some are right there with u,, like Navajo or Nepali.
Alphabets are the most practical form of writing to date.
China can keep their hieroglyphs if they want though.
earthizen:
Yup, an upvote from me. English is also a beautiful language. Its ability to capture so many meaning yet remains so simple is remarkable. (French folks, don't start arguing.....
, my French pals, guys and girls, all tell me when they write to their mom in French, their mom tell them to write in English because she doesn't know what the hell they are talking about....).
Egyptian?
diverdude1:
lol,,, probably
I read somewhere that one could not describe the intricacies of nuclear physics using the Chinese language. It's just a limited, archaic system. Needs to be phased out imo.
A challenge for the teachers out there. See if you can find a student that can, purely from memory and not copying from their phone or any other source, the character "biang" as is used in "biangbiangmian". I have asked several Chinese to write this character from memory and so far, I've yet to meet one who could.
Probably none, is my answer to the title question.
To be fair, the Chinese (authentic, traditional) written language is never known for its simplicity or practicality. It is known for its ability to capture abstract concepts such as beauty. It is primarily an artists' language.
Take for example, water, is pronounced as "shui". It is on purpose pronounced like "shhhhh", the sound of running water. The written part is [ 水
Shuǐ ]. What does it look like? Rivers spreading outward. This is all on purpose and not some morons making up these characters while drunk.
What does that tell you? It has phonetic, imaginative (pictorial, visual), and logical elements all bundled into one. Not all characters have all three aspects, but most have one or two.
Years ago the Japanese did an experiment with Japanese kids. They found out the ones who studied Japanese with Chinese characters (called kanji) scored a higher IQ than the control group who only studied pure Japanese. The explanation above came from the Japanese. Traditional chinese characters encourage both left and right brain development, imagination and logic simultaneouly.
The teacher is crucial in this kind of teaching. If s/he just says, "this is the way to write it, do it or ........" then all the benefits are lost. It means the teacher has to be 1). very knowledgeable, 2). patient, and 3) is well aware of the significance of his/her teaching ---- to stimulate a kid's full brain operation.
Well, too bad, I have never heard or seen Chinese (authentic) characters taught this way, word by word with clear explanation of why it is written like that. Heck, it is the Japs who comes up with the whys!
Notice, the Japanese used traditional chinese (written) language in that experiment. Kanji uses traditional written chinese all the time anyway. PRC's version has stripped away these advantages because they took out all the strokes they call "complicated" and "redundant". So all you see with this "simplified" written chinese is just an empty shell without soul or artistic flavors.
I try to locate articles on that experiment on the internet but can't find any. I read it in hardcopy, probably it is so "out of date" no one puts it on the internet. Sorry.
Here is an article on a similar trend of thoughts. For those who are teachers or just out of curiosity, it still provides a good read. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/08/why-do-japanese-children-lead-world-numeracy-literacy
Shining_brow:
Perhaps the best example of how the PRC pulled the real heart and spirit out of traditional characters, is that the 'heart' xin/心 character was removed from the character for 'love' - ai 爱.
