Re: Reading depends on writing, in Chinese

"Paul J Kriha" <paul.nospam.kriha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> My comment was a reaction to the original statement:
> "Language development entails four fundamental and interactive abilities:
> listening, speaking, reading, and writing."
> I learned to understand Slovak by listening. I never _learned_ to
> speak it, read it, or write it.

I don't think that this is a good example since Czech and Slovak
become mutually intelligible by exposure alone. You didn't learn to
speak Slovak because you didn't need to (and you really can't read it?
how much exposure did you have to written Slovak?)
Let's imagine that the two languages were Czech and German, under the
exact same conditions you describe I can't imagine that you would gain
anything more than fragmentary partial understanding of German).

-michael farris
.