[princeb]

The icons are made up of strokes and there are only a handful of strokes in Chinese writing. The combination of strokes and the location is arguably as complicated as spelling in English.

When I read anything, be it mandarin or Japanese or English, I attach meanings to words first. In fact, I am attaching meaning to logical structures and phrases, and then the individual words make the detail. Converting words into sounds seems to be a different skill from converting words into meaning. It really doesn’t matter whether the words are made of strokes or letters of the alphabet, the breakdown of the little details is a separate mechanism from comprehension.