A Proposal on Chinese Characters1有关汉字的提案

The Chinese written language has a vocabulary of some 7，000 or 8，000 ideographs， commonly called characters. They are almost completely arbitrary with little logical connection between them. A minimum knowledge of at least 2，000 is needed to read a newspaper， 3，000 or 4，000 for slightly more complicated material.

汉语书面语约有七八千个表意文字，一般叫作汉字。字与字之间几乎完全不成体系，没什么逻辑联系。阅读一份报纸最少需要认识两千个字，稍微复杂点的读物则需要认识三四千个字。

They are a great cultural heritage， and calligraphy is a beautiful art form. Those who have mastered them can read valuable literary， historical and scientific material of centuries past.

汉字是一笔巨大的文化遗产，书法亦是一种美妙的艺术形式。掌握了汉字就可以阅读几百年前珍贵的文学、历史和科学文献。

The problem is that in modern China they are an impediment to literacy. This has been recognized by Chinese scholars from Lu Xun2 to Mao Zedong3， both of whom called for the introduction of romanization， that is， spelling out the sounds of the words in the English alphabet.

可问题在于，到了现代，汉字本身成了识字读书的一大障碍。这一点，不论是鲁迅还是毛泽东，许多中国有识之士已经意识到了。这两位都倡导引入拼音，即用英文字母拼出汉字的发音。

The traditionalists vigorously oppose. Their argument is that the ancient written heritage would be lost， that the art form of calligraphy would vanish， that the one means of written communication between the main areas of different dialects would be gone. They grant that the complexities of the ideographs make them very difficult to memorize， read and write. They offer as a compromise some 2，000 simplified characters for daily use. They say computers make writing， type-setting and electronic communication much easier.

墨守成规的人则强烈反对。他们认为这样做会使得古老的文字遗产失传，书法艺术也会随之消失，不同方言区无法再通过书面手段进行交流。不过他们倒也承认，表意文字的复杂性使它们难记、难读还难写。于是他们提出了一个折中的办法，提供两千简化汉字以便日常使用。他们说，有了电脑，书写、排版和电子通信都容易多了。

With emphasis being placed more and more these days on earning money as early and as quickly as possible， there is less desire among young people to spend time in school. You can hear the news on radio or TV， or learn farming and mechanical techniques， or whatever else interests you， without being able to read. While estimates vary， the extent of functional illiteracy is horrendous， and growing worse.

这年头，人们越来越在意怎么早赚钱、快赚钱，年轻人都不大想待在学校。可以从广播或电视里听新闻，学习农业、机械技术，或者任何感兴趣的东西，不识字也没关系。尽管估计数字不尽相同，但半文盲范围之广仍让人震惊，而且情况还在进一步恶化。

For those who wish to learn—except for the tiny minority who are able to get into and remain in school—the problem remains， as a practical matter， insoluble. To attain an ability to read and write even 2，000 characters， which is the absolute minimum required， a person must spend endless hours practicing and using， time few people are able to afford.

能考上还能上得起学的只有极少数，对那些想要学习的人来说，问题依然不好解决，这是个很现实的问题。要达到能读写两千个汉字（这绝对是最低要求），一个人就得没完没了地练习和运用，没几个人能花得起这么多时间。

Simplification helps somewhat， but knowing only the simplified characters means you are unable to read the material written in the older complicated characters. You would have to know both the old and the new. And learning the simplified characters is only slightly less arduous than the traditional ones.

虽说简化字有其用场，但仅能认简化字，那么早先用繁体字写成的资料就看不懂。必须要既识繁体字又识简化字。再说了，学简化字其实比学繁体字简单不了多少。

The contention of the old guard that because of regional pronunciation differences it is impossible to use a common alphabetical written language does not hold water. The example of England， Ireland， Scotland and Wales immediately comes to mind. In fact using the same written alphabetized English helps them iron out the differences in pronunciation， and this is further expedited by films， radio and TV programs in “standard” English seen and heard by millions in the United Kingdom every day.

卫繁派的论点是：由于地区间发音的差异，由统一拼音字母书写的语言是行不通的。但是这种论点根本站不住脚，因为我们立马就可以想到英格兰、爱尔兰、苏格兰和威尔士。实际上，使用统一字母的书面英语可以帮助他们消除因发音差异造成的沟通困难，而数百万英国人每天收听收看的“标准”英语的电影、广播和电视节目则加快了这一进程。

Computers are fine， a scientific advance， but you still have to learn and be facile with some 2，000 Chinese characters before you can convert them into computer symbols—usually by spelling them out in alphabetical phonetics—and write them on a computer. You have to do the whole thing in reverse to read what someone else has written. It is so complicated that when I asked a Chinese scientist friend how he manages to communicate with foreign colleagues abroad， he said： “Why， we use English， of course.”

计算机确实方便，是一大科技进步，但你仍然必须学习并熟用约两千个汉字，才能把它们转化成计算机符号——通常是用字母拼音拼写出来，然后打在计算机上。要想读别人写的东西，就得把这一整套流程反过来再操作一遍。这一通操作太过麻烦，以至于当我问一个中国科学家朋友怎么与海外的外国同事交流，他回答说：“何出此问，当然是用英语啦。”

What， then， is the solution？ My proposal is this： Continue teaching the present simplified Chinese， with courses offered in the old characters for those who wish to specialize in earlier and ancient writings. At the same time adopt an alphabetized， romanized system of Chinese writing， and provide textbooks and other teaching materials in this form， to be used simultaneously and parallel with the materials offered in simplified characters. （There is talk of simplifying these even further.） Let the student learn both， but use whichever system enables him or her to move ahead fastest.

那么，有什么办法解决这个问题呢？我的建议是：目前的简化字要继续教，对于那些想研究近代文献和古籍的人，则开设繁体字课。同时，采用罗马拼音系统标注汉语书面语，并提供相应的课本及其他教学材料，与简化字教材同步使用。（还有人提到应进一步简化这些安排。）让学生既学繁体字又学简化字，但是用的时候，哪种读起来快就用哪种。