Mandarin anyone?

good article in the LATimes about Madarin. 

No, not everyone in China speaks the same language: A lot speak other dialects, (not just the Turkish and Tibetan minorities: many in the south speak Cantonese  or Hokkiense, including many in the Chinese diaspora) but to unify the country the gov't is promoting Madarin.Fair enough.

Tsinoys in the Philippines are mostly Hokkiense.

But this part is interesting:

 for the written language, there’s been a digital revolution, which has totally changed the way we write Chinese. There are a lot of aspects to talk about, but the long and short of it is, the new technology in our smartphones and computers means the writing of Chinese by hand is no longer an important, or I’d argue even a basic, skill anymore. That used to be one of the big stumbling blocks, learning to write these characters so you could communicate. Now we have  gthese smartphones — you can talk into them, you can use [phonetic] entry. You really don’t have to bother yourself with the complexity of memorizing three or four thousand characters. That has been a hugeer to write me out something by hand, she throws up her hands and says, “Get me a computer; I can’t write anything by hand anymore.”

so the gov't is pushing the idea it is easy to learn: Chineasy

TED TALK here.

as if memorizing 3000 symbols is easier than memorizing 26 letters.

How to chat in Chinese

my grandson Dane took Madarin in college and hopes to visit China one of these days

And Ruby has a mandatory course in Madarin in her 10th grade.