"...because he, like most native speakers of Sinitic languages, fundamentally doesn't see a need to distinguish gender in personal pronouns."
I'm not sure that's correct. In Mandarin the word for he, she and it is "ta" but the written characters in all three cases are different. There is a distinction; your friends mixture of using he and she is more likely to be similar to the confusion felt by English speakers learning French for example and having to distinguish between using la and le.
In frequent interaction with native Mandarin speakers, I'll vouch for the first statement: mistaking 'he' and 'she', 'him' and 'her' is easily the most common mistake I hear.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story. In casual speech there is really little distinction. If someone needs to clarify, they tend to use 女 and 男.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story.
Yes, drawing such a distinction in written Chinese is based on imitation of European languages and has been standard in school instruction for not more than a century.
Comments
"...because he, like most native speakers of Sinitic languages, fundamentally doesn't see a need to distinguish gender in personal pronouns."
I'm not sure that's correct. In Mandarin the word for he, she and it is "ta" but the written characters in all three cases are different. There is a distinction; your friends mixture of using he and she is more likely to be similar to the confusion felt by English speakers learning French for example and having to distinguish between using la and le.
In frequent interaction with native Mandarin speakers, I'll vouch for the first statement: mistaking 'he' and 'she', 'him' and 'her' is easily the most common mistake I hear.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story. In casual speech there is really little distinction. If someone needs to clarify, they tend to use 女 and 男.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story.
Yes, drawing such a distinction in written Chinese is based on imitation of European languages and has been standard in school instruction for not more than a century.