Filing Systems
If Chinese writing relies on pictographic characters instead of a phonetic alphabet, how do they file stuff?
———- from Ran Tenrab of Asheville, NC
Some of us prefer an intuitive approach to filing. I know all of my government grant applications go behind the radiator. The OSHA compliance forms are under the coffee pot. Outgoing correspondence is on the top of the cyclatron, and incoming tucked into the bottom shelf of the mu meson supply cabinet. All you need is a gut feeling. Certainly a lack of phonemes doesn’t prevent Chinese speakers from sorting through the paperwork of their lives in whatever manner they see fit. My guess is that you were severely traumatized by your third grade teacher, who had a thing about phonics. Until you make peace with this, you’ll continue to project your own psychic wounds onto others.
Some of us prefer an intuitive approach to filing. I know all of my government grant applications go behind the radiator. The OSHA compliance forms are under the coffee pot. Outgoing correspondence is on the top of the cyclatron, and incoming tucked into the bottom shelf of the mu meson supply cabinet. All you need is a gut feeling. Certainly a lack of phonemes doesn’t prevent Chinese speakers from sorting through the paperwork of their lives in whatever manner they see fit. My guess is that you were severely traumatized by your third grade teacher, who had a thing about phonics. Until you make peace with this, you’ll continue to project your own psychic wounds onto others. 