| By using English phonics, you can eliminate many of | | | | grossly mispronounced. |
| the complications of learning to speak Mandarin. | | | | Other attempts were made to integrate a Latin |
| Native English speakers no longer need to trudge | | | | alphabet for the Mandarin language during the 1920's |
| through the old fashioned and ineffective Wade-Giles | | | | and 30's, but most were unsuccessful. Finally, in 1985, |
| method, or struggle with the current, but just as | | | | the Pinyin Romanization system officially replaced the |
| difficult Pinyin Chinese to speak Mandarin. There's an | | | | Wade-Giles method. The Chinese government's |
| easier way! Words and phrases can be sounded out | | | | commitment to promote a standardized Latin |
| exactly the same way we learned to read and speak | | | | alphabet for westerner and the country's minorities |
| English in grade school. | | | | promoted the adoption of Pinyin Putonghua, and it is |
| The Romanization of Chinese Characters | | | | used extensively throughout the country. |
| Mandarin Pinyin is called Putonghua, or The Common | | | | Unfortunately, native English speakers who study |
| Language, and is widely used throughout China. Its | | | | Mandarin quickly discover that many of the vowels |
| four tones, level, rising, falling, and high rising, | | | | and consonants used in Pinyin are pronounced |
| distinguish many words and syllables with the same | | | | differently than their English counterparts. This means |
| consonants and vowels but with different meanings. | | | | that English speakers, who have been trained since |
| It deciphers the Chinese characters and symbols into | | | | primary school to sound out words phonetically, first |
| a Romanized alphabet, eliminating the abstract | | | | need to learn Pinyin in order to speak correctly and |
| strokes completely unrecognizable to foreigners. | | | | clearly in Chinese. |
| Prior to the use of Pinyin, westerners depended upon | | | | A Better Way |
| the Wade-Giles Romanization system that was initially | | | | The good news is that there is an easier and faster |
| invented to simplify Chinese characters into their | | | | way of learning Mandarin. Native English speakers can |
| English counterparts. British scholar Sir Thomas Francis | | | | by-pass Pinyin and immediately concentrate on |
| Wade created the method, and it was later modified | | | | reading and speaking Chinese by using the familiar |
| by Herbert Allen Giles in 1912, and it became the | | | | English phonics system. For example, the Chinese |
| preferred transliteration method among scholars. But | | | | word for 'next', when written in Pinyin is: xi ay i ge. |
| what it truly gave the western world was a | | | | Using English phonetics, you would say: shee-ah ee |
| systematic and consistent method of butchering the | | | | guh. Congratulations! You have just pronounced the |
| Chinese language through mispronunciations for more | | | | word correctly! So as you can see, if you are |
| than a half century. Why did it fail so miserably? | | | | searching for a simple way to speak Chinese |
| Learners of Mandarin relied upon the pronunciation | | | | effectively, the English phonetic system makes the |
| guide, but were seldom educated properly on how | | | | learning process an easily attainable goal. |
| the system worked. Inevitably, most words were | | | | |