language

=Chinese Language =
 * Interesting Facts:[[image:chinese-characters.jpg align="right"]]**
 * The Chinese written system is the first known form of written language.
 * There are over 56,000 characters but many of them are not used.
 * The average person needs to know about 3,000 characters to read the newspaper. Knowing 6,000 characters is the ideal goal for each person to learn.
 * Chinese characters are called //hanzi//.
 * Every character is given the exact same amount of space, no matter how complex it may be.
 * Each //hanzi// represents a syllable rather than a letter with a sound.
 * There are three main dialects of the Chinese language:
 * Mandarin - spoken in Beijing and Northern China
 * Cantonese - spoken in Southern China
 * Putonghua - the official langauge of the government and taught in education (everyone is required by law to speak Putonghua).