Learn Mandarin Using Phonetic English
By using English phonics, you can eliminate many of the complications of learning to articulate Mandarin. Native English speakers no longer call for to trudge through the old fin the way thathioned and ineffective toil-Giles method, or break one´s neck with the current, but fairminded as difficult Pinyin Chinese to speak Mandarin. There’s an easier path! Words and phrases can be sounded absent exactly the same way we learned to read and speak English in grade school.
The Romanization of Chinese Characters
Mandarin Pinyin is called Putonghua, or The Common Language, and is widely used everywhere China. Its four tones, level, rising, falling, and high rising, distinguish many words and syllables with the same consonants and vowels but with disparate meanings. It deciphers the Chinese characters and symbols into a Romanized alphabet, eliminating the abstract strokes completely unrecognizable to foreigners.
Prior to the use of Pinyin, westerners depended upon the Wade-Giles Romanization system that was at invented to simplify Chinese characters into their English counterparts. British scholar Sir Thomas Francis Wade created the method, and it was later modified past Herbert Allen Giles in 1912, and it became the preferred transliteration method among scholars. But what it truly gave the western sphere was a systematic and unchanging method of butchering the Chinese language through mispronunciations for more than a half century. Why did it fail so miserably? Learners of Mandarin relied upon the pronunciation guide, but were seldom educated properly on how the system worked. Inevitably, most words were grossly misbroad.
Other attempts were made to integrate a Latin alphabet for the Mandarin language during the 1920’s and 30’s, but most were unsuccessful. Finally, in 1985, the Pinyin Romanization system officially replaced the Wade-Giles method. The Chinese government’s commitment to promote a standardized Latin alphabet for westerner and the country’s minorities promoted the adoption of Pinyin Putonghua, and it is used extensively throughout the country.
Unfortunately, native English speakers who apply oneself Mandarin quickly discover that many of the vowels and consonants used in Pinyin are pronounced differently than their English counterparts. This funds that English speakers, who have been trained since primary school to sound out words phonetically, first need to learn Pinyin in order to speak correctly and clearly in Chinese.
A Better Way
The good news is that there is an easier and faster way of learning Mandarin. Native English speakers can by-pass Pinyin and immediately concentrate on reading and speaking Chinese by using the customary English phonics system. For example, the Chinese word for ‘next’, when written in Pinyin is: xi ay i ge. Using English phonetics, you would say: shee-ah ee guh. Congratulations! You have just pronounced the word correctly! So as you can see, if you are searching for a simple way to speak Chinese effectively, the English phonetic system makes the learning process an easily attainable goal.
Timothy Green is the co-author of SPEAK E-Z CHINESE In Phonetic English. You can find fun and child´s play Mandarin lessons, as well as great travel and culture tips about China at http://www.CathayCafe.com. In China, visit the authors at http://www.CathayCafe.net.