Awkward Sneeze
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I've often commented upon the deleterious effect of computers on the ability of Chinese to write characters, and the curiously named Jennifer 8. Lee already back in the February 1, 2001 issue of The New York Times wrote a convincing article entitled "Where the PC is mightier than the pen". More recently, I addressed this topic in a January 4, 2007 post on Pinyin News entitled "Chinese Characters as a High-Maintenance Script and the Consequences Thereof". And my friend, David Moser, described to me in a personal communication some years ago that it is nearly impossible to find a Chinese person who can write *both* the second and third characters of the common term DA3 PEN1TI4 ("sneeze") without using pinyin ("spelling") to type them into a computer or looking them up in a dictionary, again usually via pinyin. (I'm intentionally omitting the characters for this and the next term I shall discuss so that individuals who are literate in Chinese and wish to test themselves can do so.)
Now comes further evidence that, whether due to the effect of computers or simply because they would never have known anyway, persons whose main written language is Chinese are unable to write another common expression.
This example was provided to me by a former student of mine, Leif Karlen, who is studying in China now. He sent me a clipping from the December 1 (year unknown) Zhongguo Jingji Shibao (China Economic Times) entitled GAN1GA4 ("Awkward") by a reporter named Lu Yong. This is a very clever article in which the author describes how he and a couple of colleagues decided to test the hypothesis that computers were adversely affecting the ability of Chinese to write characters. What they did was go out walking on a pedestrian street and simply ask whomever they encountered how to write GAN1GA4. Whether young or old, professional or plebeian, they couldn't find anyone who could write GAN1GA4. Crestfallen, they went back to their office and asked all the others who worked there whether they could write GAN1GA4. The article concludes by stating that it would be GAN1GA4 to reveal the results of what they discovered in their own newspaper office.
The last I heard, educational authorities in Singapore had authorized all students taking the national exams in Chinese to use electronic dictionaries so that they would be able to write their answers without having to resort directly to pinyin.