Don't get me wrong, it was a oral skill you had to be taught or passed down by a father

Oral skill

Holy father?

Don't.

also

this is only for europe

It was a privilege but it still did escape the elites of the time

in places like japan

people *really* didnt know how to read and write

Everything was based on caste though no matter where you look

some places have bigger upper castes than others tho

~~Then they stole Chinese writing system.~~

Yep

lol

The chinese had like forty jillion alphabets lol

chinese writing system is one of the worst on earth

They still do

China used to be dozens of independent states and people's

its an archaic pictographic language

Then the Han happened

A lot to chose from.

not an alphabet

Their own computers don't have all the characters

Nowdays

No, now they have one composite of forty jillion alphabets

it still is

Nuke Chinese save linguistics

@veehro Happy Birthday Vee from the mixed race ethnostate of Paraguay we wish you well

There are kids who taught themselves to read more or less

China would literally be better off using logograms

And yeah it's not as effective as being educated properly

holograms

But you'd be surprised at the gaps the human brain can fill with intuitive learning

what do you mean not as effective?

you cant teach yourself to read without at least learning the phonetic alphabet

Like broken and poor grammar

Awful handwriting

Etc

Bad handwriting is hard to read

Self taught can often result in gaps as well

Still communication though