The people in the countries around the Mediterranean and the Chinese all started using signs as a means of writing at about the same time. the
people of the island of Crete developed a script known as Linear B which has ideograms, numbers and signs. The Chinese way of writing was very complex, and has over 50,000 signs! Fortunately, only a few thousand are needed for everyday life, but Chinese is still a difficult language to learn. It has changed very little during the last 4000 years, which means that modern scholars can still read the ancient texts. The Chinese characters are made up of 26 different strokes, and the Chinese place a lot of importance on the art of fine handwriting. In fact, Chinese children spend a lot of time copying characters before they can write quickly and correctly!
