Information Theory David Moser Full Episode – Why Chinese is So Damn Hard
Sep 23, 2025
David Moser, a linguistics scholar at Capital Normal University and author of A Billion Voices, shares his insights on learning Chinese. He discusses the complex challenges posed by Chinese characters, which hinder phonetic learning. Moser reflects on China’s transformation in the 1980s, the debate over a unified national language, and the balance between cultural identity and practicality in language. He emphasizes immersive learning techniques for mastering Mandarin and offers advice for new learners to prioritize speaking and listening.
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Speech Is The Core Of Language
- The core of any language is speaking and listening rather than its writing system.
- Chinese characters contain cultural cues but are secondary to spoken fluency.
How A Takeout Box Changed A Life
- Douglas Hofstadter's show of reading Chinese sparked Moser's obsession and set his career path.
- Hofstadter arranged for Moser to join Peking University's translation of GEB in 1986.
Translating Gödel, Escher, Bach In Beijing
- Translating GEB meant deciphering messy handwritten Chinese and matching English wordplay into idiomatic Chinese.
- The team often 'trans-conceptualized' jokes rather than translating literally to preserve effect.
