Putting us to shame - toddler knows 2000 Hanzi

[self-taught-mba]

Early-achiever Li Tianqi from Beijing can read and recognize more than 2000 Chinese characters at the age of two, a taunting task for a fifth-grader in China

No one has any excuse anymore.

[Meng Lelan]

Every year the Chinese press always seems to have some report of some tot being able to read thousands and thousands of characters. Usually because of grandparents or stay at home mom armed with billions of flashcards drilling the tot all day long.

[renzhe]

I'm sure they use a special program that unlocks the secrets that the mainstream teaching lobby does not want you to know.

[Don_Horhe]

Dou Yuling, Li's mother, said the first phrase that the baby pronounced were the words 'emergency exit', while she was walking at a park with her grandfather.

Maybe the kid was trying to tell them something...

[c_redman]

As Penn and Teller's Bullshi!t episode "Baby Bullshit" showed, toddlers are great at learning to read English too ... while the parents are in the room. Remove them from the equation, or randomize the order of the words, and they resort to guessing. Considering the girl's mother is mentioned in almost every paragraph, I remain skeptical.

[Meng Lelan]

I'm sure they use a special program that unlocks the secrets that the mainstream teaching lobby does not want you to know.

I don't want to know of highly questionable special programs that purport to unlock secrets to language learning. There are no secrets to language learning. That language learning is an endless life long process is no secret to anyone.

[Hofmann]

I'll just say my thoughts straight out:

Good for the kid. I hope she doesn't go crazy when she grows up. The one who wrote the article is mentally challenged.