Hi 恩希,

I think it's completely normal if we don't know the histories of other countries. Even though I took World History and Chinese History in junior secondary school, I think I don't know much about the histories of America, for example. I have a cousin born and growing up in NYC, but we don't talk about the histories. (She's studying Grade 7 now, though.)

Yes, you're right. As people use the same (ignoring the debates between traditional and simplified Chinese) writing system, Chinese is considered one language even though it can be unintelligible among speakers sometimes.

However, there are still some debates on whether Chinese should be considered one language or multiple languages.

“Zhongwen” (中文) and “guoyu” (國語) can be interchangeable, but not always. Generally, 國語 is used only in Taiwan nowadays, but “guoyu ge” (國語歌) is used in Hong Kong as well, referring to songs in Mandarin. Nevertheless, 中文 only means "Chinese language". Be careful when you hear "somebody can speak 中文," because which Chinese "dialect" that somebody can speak depends on where they are. For example, if you hear this sentence in Hong Kong, most probably he can speak Cantonese; but if it is in Taiwan, it should be Mandarin.

Great question about my opinion on being civilised, frankly. It took me a whole week thinking about how to response. I think there are saying around the world telling people "to treat others like how you want to be treated." Respect, to me, holds a key part in being civilised. Knowing more deeply in other cultures and civilisations should let people respect the others more. Therefore, knowing others and respecting others, in my opinion, is closer to being civilised. Not only do I think Chinese is never civilised (maybe a bit more civilsed during Confusian times), but I also think Europeans were not civilised during the Age of Exploration. I guess, however, they are trying to correct themselves afterwards. As for Chinese, I didn't see any.

Sometimes maybe the deepest thoughts make the difference. I know Chinese thinks unity is important but the western cultures focus more on individuality.

Feel free to look over my articles written in English. I only have 5 so far, but I will be writing more in the near future. I have a gmail account (I register this account with my gmail), I can give it to you through private note. You may need to tell me what you want me to do in Google Doc.