re: #222 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

Well, of course you know the values of the letters, which would allow you to “decipher” the pronunciation of a new word the first time you see it*—in Chinese there’s no such mechanism. So alphabetic writing is great. I wasn’t attacking alphabetic writing.

But that’s all you’re doing is deciphering, until you’ve learned to absorb that new word as a unit.

you can read it, not just decipher it.

*Of course in English you’d frequently be misled.

It’s kind of like Morse Code.
Some people have to translate each individual character.
Then there are some of us who actually “hear” entire words and phrases.