Reading Mandarin Chinese with Romanization and Chinese Charcters
Chinese characters may seem confusing and difficult, but anyone learning the Mandarin language can use Romanization as a stepping stone towards full literacy. Romanization is a system for transcribing the sounds of the Mandarin language using the Western (or Roman) alphabet. Once you have mastered Romanization, learning Chinese characters becomes much easier.
Chinese dictionaries often have several different ways to look up characters. The stroke count method classifies characters by the number of strokes used to draw the character.
Bopomofo is a phonetic system used for learning Chinese characters. It is widely used in Taiwan, but Mainland China uses a Romanization system called Pinyin.
Using a mixture of Pinyin and Chinese characters, Mandarin students can gradually become accustomed to reading Chinese texts.
Pinyin is a good aid to learning Mandarin but don't let yourself become dependent on it. Taking the time to learn Chinese characters will deepen your understanding of Chinese culture and the Mandarin language.
Pinyin is a system of Romanization for reading and writing Mandarin without Chinese characters. It is used for learning to speak the Mandarin language before beginning the difficult task of mastering Chinese characters.
This website has a full assortment of tools for learning Mandarin, including several tools for adding Pinyin to Mandarin language websites and documents.
This terrific tool will add Pinyin to any Chinese website or pasted text. This makes Chinese text much easier to read for students of Mandarin who are still struggling with Chinese characters.
