It seems that technology may be creating as many problems as it solves. In this case, the problem created is being called “character amnesia.” That is, Chinese and Japanese youth, online for much of their lives, are forgetting how to write many of the characters used in their languages.
Despite the recent news, this is definitely not a new phenomenon. As far back as the 1980′s, I was already hearing of Japanese forgetting how to write kanji due to the increasing ubiquity of ワプロ or word processors. While the ワプロ of the 80′s may have gone out of style, the use of keyboards as character input devices, be they on laptops or smart phones, seems to have contributed to a loss of ability in writing characters by hand. I, myself, certainly lost much of my ability to hand-write Japanese as I got more into typing the language on keyboards.
According to an article on breitbart.com, there is even a Chinese phrase to describe the phenomenon: 提笔忘字 [tibiwangzi], or “take pen, forget character.”
In another article on cnet.com, Chris Matyszczyk opines, “This amnesia might seem like a problem only for character-based languages, but I wonder whether they’re the only victims. Surely you, too, have seen, say, the English language increasingly tortured by the uncertain hands of those who spend far too long touching keys rather than pens, books, or other humans.”
This has certainly been a concern of mine for a while now. While I can still read and type Japanese with no problem, remembering how to write kanji by hand is a real problem. What are your thoughts?
Welcome to week #2 of grad school! Er… rather… week 1. Sorta. School started last week on a Thursday, making this the first full week of classes. It’s also the first time I’ll meet my remaining teachers, both of whom I’ve been wanting to meet for quite a while.
I’m not used to having multiple classes to juggle. In fact, I haven’t done that since high school (see: the 1980s). Military: one class at a time. Undergrad: one class at a time. It’s going to take a bit of trial and error to figure out a study schedule to maximize time and minimize confusion and repetition.
Mondays are my “long day” (i.e. 2 classes, spanning from 2pm to 7:30pm). Additionally, this is the first time I have a class in a building I’ve never even been to (which happens to be on the opposite side of campus), so I’ll be leaving a bit earlier than normal to make sure I find it.
I have nothing specific to report on yet, but will likely make some comments after classes today. Also, fear not… every post will not be titled “Week ##.” This is just a filler for now until I have more substantive thoughts to upon which pontificate.
So, I survived the first week of graduate school. That is to say, I survived a single 1-hour class.
Strangely (?), ASU decided to start classes up on a Thursday. Considering I have only one class on Thursdays (LIN 520) and nothing schedule for Fridays, I had a rather light week. Next week will likely be decisively heavier, as I’m in class Mon-Thurs.
The only thought I have so far is that I’m rather enjoying being back in an academic environment, this time with a bunch of other passionate language nerds instead of a bunch of tech nerds. Although I do have a different background and experiences than many of my classmates, the same holds true for them. We each know languages and other things that the others don’t know. I can see learning a lot from everyone.
I truly do get to be the dumbest guy in the room. Cool.
