Actually, the Chinese character system place very little emphasis on sound. You pronounce anything you like in your lect. I suppose you know this word
越南
Vietnamese - Việt Nam
Min Nan (Taiwanese) - Wat Nam
Cantonese - Yut Nam
Mandarin - Yue Nan
If you happen to identify
越 = Việt (Guangdong)
南 = South
you pronounce it the same way when you see these 2 words shows up next time.
So, the system is, you need to link whatever you speak and its meaning to a symbol.
Next time you see 南, you know its south, and you pronounce it out in your native lect. From from Viet Nam (越南
, I immediately know it means south of Guangdong.
One more example is Hà Nội 河內
河 = river
內 = inside
Vietnamese - Hà Nội
Taiwanese - Ho Lai
Cantonese - Ho Noi
Mandarin - He Ne
You link the Hà with the symbol 河, and Nội with symbol 內 for Vietnamese. So when I see Ha Noi, I knew it means "within river".
Next time when Ha Noi or Viet Nam shows up in combination of different characters, I got their meaning straight away. I do not have to check dictionary.
This is the general way how the system works. It is very efficient and clean in my opinion. I am not saying Latin is bad, but Chinese character is very efficient for Sinitic lects.
I heard you guys even have a hell lot of difficulties in Truyen Kieu.
Many Vietnamese told me "No problem in reading Truyen Kieu".
翹傳(Tuyen Kieu),斷腸新聲」(Doan Truong Tam Thanh)
I ask them "Are you sure?"
Then they admit, they need a lot of annotations.
Vietnamese today have a lot of difficulties accessing Truyen Kieu, I do not know whether to cheer your literacy rate or to cry.