When did the Chinese start to switch over from writing in literary Chinese to writing in spoken Chinese?

ANSWER: Sometime around May 4, 1919.

The May Fourth Movement in China, which started with protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919, is generally regarded as when the Chinese began to switch over from writing in literary Chinese to writing in spoken Chinese. The difference between the two is essentially that to understand something written in literary Chinese people would need to see and read the Chinese characters themselves, but to understand something written in spoken Chinese, people could either read it themselves or just listen to someone read it to them. So, after the Chinese started writing in spoken Chinese, even illiterate people could enjoy newspaper articles and novels when those newspaper articles and novels were read to them.

The Chinese slogan that was used at the time to describe writing in spoken Chinese was 我手寫我口 (아수사아구), which literally means "My (我) hand (手) writes (寫) my (我) mouth (口)." I mention this because this morning I came across the following song that uses that old Chinese slogan as its theme.

What is the Chinese for "worthless"?

ANSWER: 不値一文 (불치일문), which can translate as "not (不) worth (値) one (一) red cent (文)."

The character 文 (문) is an old counter for coins, so 一文 (일문) would be similar to the Korean 한 푼. By the way, you can switch the order of the characters and say 一文不値 (일문불치) without changing the meaning.

The Korean translation of the expression would be as follows: 한 푼의 값어치도 못됨
   

How do we know that Russia's (俄 아) goose (鵝 아) is cooked in Ukraine?

ANSWER: Because people on social media in China, Russia's ally, have given Russia the nickname 菜鵝 (채아), which means "weak (菜) goose (鵝)."

The Chinese word for "Russia" is 俄羅斯 (아라사), but the first character 俄 (아), by itself, can also mean "Russia." The Chinese character for "goose" is 鵝 (아), which is pronounced the same as the Chinese character for Russia. So, "weak (菜) Goose (鵝)" has the same pronunciation as "weak (菜) Russia (俄)," which is what the Chinese are implying.

The character 菜 (채) means "vegetable," but the Chinese also use it to mean "weak."

By the way, the Chinese word for "rookie" or "beginner" is 菜鳥 (채조), which literally translates as "weak (菜) bird (鳥)." And since a goose is also a bird, the Chinese may be implying that the Russian military are a bunch of "rookies." The following "Newsweek" article was published in October 2022.

"Chinese Social Media Brands Russia 'Weak Goose' After Ukraine Failures"