Note: Reflections on Chinese Language Study

Extract

The study of Chinese differs in some important respects from the study of the other languages that figure importantly in American college curricula. This is because the structure and nature of the language itself are so different, and because Chinese culture is so distinct. Santayana said that to learn another language is to acquire another soul; we might add that in the case of Chinese there is less certainty about which is the possessor and which the possessed.