The Chinese Room Argument

Suppose that I'm locked in a room and given a large batch of Chinese writing. Suppose furthermore (as is indeed the case) that I know no Chinese, either written or spoken, and that I'm not even confident that I could recognize Chinese writing as Chinese writing distinct from, say, Japanese writing or meaningless squiggles. To me, Chinese writing is just so many meaningless squiggles. Now suppose further that after this first batch of Chinese writing I am given a second batch of Chines...

 The Costs of Our Complicated Spelling System

A short list of the problems caused by the irregularity of English spelling starts with children being taught the alphabet and finding that it is a poor guide on how to reliably pronounce the written form or reproducing spoken words in writing. This leads inevitably to poor results in other areas of learning, as without literacy competency, no child can master other subjects. Apart from the loss in terms of peoples? working lives there are other costs associated with remedial classes, addit...