To the Eaitor of the "Nomrn-Cunxa Dany News"
Sin—Being desirous of acquiring a food working knowledge of the Chi-Rose language, but having listened to several arguments as to the dificult ties experienced by foreigners in this direction, I would be interested 10. hear the opinions of some of your Unguistle readers on the following. points:
1. How many thousand characters it necessary to know, to be able to read and understand the principle Chinese newspapers. business and advanced documents?
2. With the ald of a good teacher, how many months how many hours per day) would it take foreigner of average intelligence to master the required number of characters as at 3. Is it advisable to acquire a good working knowledge of the spoken language in its advanced form, or can the latter be tackled independently? been the difference between the spoken and written languages £0 great jas to render it impossible for a foreigner possessing a fair' knowledge' of the former, but only a. limited knowledge of' the latter, to understand say a newspaper when read out aloud to him?!
5. Is it possible that, because of the limitations attached to the monosyllable and tonal nature of the language, a Chinese can, experience difculty in understanding the contents of an unseen document when read out to him by a fellow countryman Nanking, June 2.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.