QUESTION:
Anyone who has attempted to learn the Chinese language will tell you how hard it is to learn the characters that make up the written Chinese language. Chinese language experts have recorded a total of 54,000 unique characters - making learning the Chinese language something of an enormous feat for anyone.

Unlike English with its 26-letter alphabet, Chinese 'words' cannot be sounded out letter by letter and characters are usually learned by rote.

How many characters are Chinese students in the fourth grade expected to know?
A. 2,000;
B. 40,000;
C. 500;
D. 2,500;

ANSWERS:
If you said A, you are right. The school curriculum is designed to teach students around 2,000 characters by the fourth grade and further 3,000 by the end of college or university. Each character is learned by looking at it, memorizing it and writing it over and over.

Sometimes you will see young children and their parents practicing with 'flash-cards' that are used to aid the process.