User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
July 2, 2009 at 4:58 AMamesburygeorge,
No, they are targeted at absolute newbies! Don't let the conversation here throw you off...
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 12: A Dodgy Opportunity
June 25, 2009 at 2:52 PMAnd you thought we were just reusing the same voice actors over and over!
Oh yes... everything is connected!
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 25, 2009 at 8:52 AMxiaophil,
Those are great observations, and exactly the kind of thing we're going to be tackling in future episodes. Stay tuned!
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 25, 2009 at 8:51 AMbodawei,
You just intimated that the phonetic component helps - and then countered that with 'but it is not predictable'. Exactly. I hope I don't sound like a pedant but I find this really only helps if you ALREADY KNOW the word and mementarily have forgotten the pronunciation. It is no use at all on a word you have not confronted before, in my experience.
Yes, I agree with you... The phonetic components help keep the characters in your memory (help with recall) rather than the initial learning, or "imprinting."
At a higher level, you do find that you can guess some pronunciations (certain phonetic components are more reliable than others, and with time you learn which are which), but you're usually still relatively clueless with respect to tone.
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 25, 2009 at 8:48 AMchangye,
I can't say with certainty that Hanyu Pinyin is becoming more popular with the Taiwanese people, but I have been hearing that (1) the government is using pinyin more and more in public places like street signs when a romanization is required as part of English translations, and (2) many foreign students studying in Taiwan are using pinyin now.
Maybe some of our listeners in Taiwan can comment on the issue?
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 25, 2009 at 7:05 AMdamon,
Are you in Taiwan now? In recent years, Hanyu Pinyin has gained a lot of ground there. If you're interested in that trend, check out a Taiwan-based blog called Pinyin News.
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 25, 2009 at 7:03 AMJenny,
Chinese is a language of which the writing doesn't tell you anything about how to read the words
Not totally true... tons of characters have phoentic components, and they go a long way toward easing the burden of memorization. The problem is that phonetic components in characters are not predictable or systematic; there's still a lot of guesswork involved. No guesswork with pinyin!
Posted on: Useful Phrases #1
June 22, 2009 at 1:48 AMguybtaylor,
There are a number of words, including 明白 (ming2bai) and 清楚 (qing1chu), where the version with a neutral tone second syllable coexists with a non-neutral tone version. The north tends to prefer the neutral tone, while the south, not so much.
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 8: About to Give Birth
July 6, 2009 at 2:13 AMraygo,
Just making sure you were paying attention all the way through to the end... :)