The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2024 - 32

CERTIFICATION FORUM by Holly Mikkelson
How Do Graders Address
Regional Varieties?
Part 2: Chinese
I
n the July/August
Certification Forum,
I addressed the issue
of languages with many
regional varieties (i.e., Arabic,
French, Portuguese, and
Spanish) and how graders
deal with such varieties in
certification exams. One
language notably missing
from the list was Chinese,
to which I will devote this
column in its entirety.
A World Language
According to Wikipedia,
Chinese (or at least a variety
of Chinese) is spoken
by 1.35 billion people,
approximately 17% of the
world's population. It's the
official language of China,
Taiwan, and Singapore, and
is a recognized minority
language in Malaysia.
Chinese is one of six official
languages of the United
Nations system, including
all its agencies, such as the
World Health Organization
and United Nations
Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization.
Furthermore, as the map
here shows, spoken or
written Chinese is used
daily in a great number of
countries.
Written Chinese dates back
to 1250 BCE. Its character
system has evolved along
with the spoken language,
and historically it even
influenced the writing
systems of Japanese and
Korean. The Standard Chinese
of today was officially
adopted in the 1930s and is
based on the Beijing dialect
of Mandarin. Many varieties
of Chinese are spoken within
the Chinese mainland and in
other Sinophone countries
and regions, but all use
the same characters
(either in simplified or
traditional form).
Thus, mutually
unintelligible varieties,
languages, or dialects
(see the previous column
regarding dialects), such as
Cantonese and Wu, may look
the same on paper, but once
they're read aloud they're
as different as Russian and
Polish. In the 1950s, the
People's Republic of China
(PRC) instituted a system
of simplified characters for
greater accessibility, and
Singapore adopted that
system, whereas traditional
characters continued to
be used elsewhere, and
still are, in many cases.
Chinese usage is regulated
by the State Language
Commission in China, and by
similar agencies in Taiwan,
Singapore, and Malaysia.
If you're preparing to take
ATA's certification exam
and have questions about
accepted usage, you can
probably find the answers
there or in the resources that
are allowed during the exam.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
32 The ATA Chronicle | September/October 2024
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https://www.ata-chronicle.online/highlights/how-do-graders-address-regional-varieties/ https://www.ata-chronicle.online/highlights/how-do-graders-address-regional-varieties/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Language_Commission#:~:text=The%20State%20Language%20Commission%20(SLC,Standard%20Chinese%20Characters%20(2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Language_Commission#:~:text=The%20State%20Language%20Commission%20(SLC,Standard%20Chinese%20Characters%20(2013 https://www.atanet.org/certification/prepare-to-take-the-ata-certification-exam/restrictions-and-requirements/resources/ https://www.atanet.org/certification/prepare-to-take-the-ata-certification-exam/restrictions-and-requirements/resources/ http://www.atanet.org

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