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03/18/2005: "Pinyin and Zhuyin"

I was reading a thread on supremeboba about pinyin vs. zhuyin and followed the wikipedia on the two subjects. Really interesting that zhuyin, which I learned as a child, was only around formally since 1913!

It must have been incredibly difficult to learn pronunciation without a phonetic alphabet!!

There was a similar page on pinyin, which I learned in high school. When I was learning pinyin, I found that it was an excellent way of teaching Mandarin to literate English speakers. When reading Chinese with pinyin, I was able to pronounce new vocabulary a *lot* faster than zhuyin.

Looking back in my adolescence, I realize that I made some mistakes when it came to spending time on Saturday in Chinese school. At the time, playing video games at the neighboring 7-11 seemed so much more appealing and useful. But now that I'm 25, I find it pretty sad being an illiterate Chinese adult. Truth be told, I can read maybe 1/3rd of a newspaper and nearly all of a Chinese menu, but that's definitely not grade school/high school proficiency.

If I were to do it all again? I'd probably still play the video games.

Why? Cause Chinese school was lame. The thing that *really* bugged/bugs me about the way Chinese school works in the Bay Area is that it focuses too much on giving crap homework and assignments that are related to being able to write Chinese. I really didn't like the stroke order type of stuff we had to learn for writing, and all the repetitive writing! I'd much rather look that crap up if I need it.

I'd appreciate a class that focused on vocabulary for oral conversation and for reading. Ideally, homework assignments in this type of class should be read this/listen to this and figure it out, take this test in English to figure out if you understood the text's meaning & maybe test some writing.

I think giving out sheets of paper asking students to copy a word 500 times is just a fundamental waste of time for Chinese living in America, and quite even possibly for those in China who operate chiefly on computers. Personally, I *rarely* write anything on paper anymore. Teach me how to spell it phonetically in pinyin and what it looks like, and I can probably type it in Chinese and come out with whatever font/stroke order you'd like.

Nonetheless, I should probably go back to night school and actually learn Mandarin formally again.

On the bright side, I've recently found a Chinese/Asian radio station in the Bay area on FM 96.1. I listen to it every once in a while to at least train my ear to new words and vocabulary. I guess that's a start.

Replies: 1 Comment

<"Cause Chinese school was lame. The thing that *really* bugged/bugs me about the way Chinese school works in the Bay Area is that it focuses too much on giving crap homework and assignments that are related to being able to write Chinese. "

Well in general the Asian school system of learning anything is through massive repetition. Like math.

There have been interesting controversies as of late as to whether or not this is more effective - with conflicting reports.

Dennis said @ 03/21/2005 08:22 AM PST