I think this issue stems from historically Han text being used for more languages than just Mandarin. Han text being written in a vernacular Mandarin style is a quite recent invention.
Chinese has an advantage in that you can often devise a meaning from characters in a way you often can’t in English, but not pronunciation.
Funnily enough, the recent popularity of compound words in Chinese has made this even better.
For a commonly cited example, 火山 which means volcano, is literally composed of "fire mountain". 计算机 literally means computing machine. An alternative writing of computer, 电脑, literally means electric brain.
I think this issue stems from historically Han text being used for more languages than just Mandarin. Han text being written in a vernacular Mandarin style is a quite recent invention.
Funnily enough, the recent popularity of compound words in Chinese has made this even better.
For a commonly cited example, 火山 which means volcano, is literally composed of "fire mountain". 计算机 literally means computing machine. An alternative writing of computer, 电脑, literally means electric brain.