[halfelf]

Chinese is not only about written language. Actually there are two grammar system, written and spoken language. One can learn how to read through novels but not how to speak.

[stealthfound3r]

I'll just leave this here: http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html (Why Chinese is so damn hard)

[laowushi]

象形文字的构词法和拼音文字是不一样的，不能想当然哦。汉字的构词法一般有六种，称为“六书”，即指事、象形、形声、会意、转注、假借。有兴趣进一步了解，可以看这里：http://baike.baidu.com/subview/633/5734721.htm

[laowushi]

20世纪早期“白话文运动”之后，中国的口语和书面语逐步趋于统一。以前确实是分离的，但也不是绝对分离（有很多古代通俗小说是用白话文或“半文半白”文写的）。那个书写体系叫做“文言文”，如果不经过一定的训练，一般人看不懂。目前，中国的口语和书面语是统一的，没有本质上的区别。所以，能看懂哈利波特的中国人，你能说他说不了英语吗？

[readme]

This is true for all languages, not just chinese.

[tomsthumb]

Almost every native German I've met has told me English is strange because it's spoken differently than it is written, and while contrived, spoken Esperanto is spectacularly close to written once you know the alphabet.