About Me and Bopomofo

Hi, I'm Jia-yan, a Mandarin Teacher (also a Tutor) from Taiwan and now in New Zealand.

Here is some tips for Mandarin learning:

* Singing songs! It is great for beginners to practice spelling (but not for tones!). You don't have to worry about tones when singing. I share songs with not only my students but also anyone would like to know Bopomo.


  • You are welcome to request the songs you are keen to know. You may donate to my Paypal account to support me maintain this site.


  1. Log in to your Paypal account
  2. Pay to My Paypal account: "linjiayan@gmail.com"
  3. It takes 1-2 hours to create the page for each song. Type in a fair amount you think.


* Watching Drama! Here is the page introducing Viki Website, which shows online Mandarin drama with English subtitles.

* Using Bopomo spelling system.  The Mandarin phonetic symbols, Bopomo, also called ZhuYin, is what Taiwanese use to learn Mandarin and it's better for kids if their mother tongues are using Roman letters.  Learners won't be confused with the mother language if it adopts Roman letters as well.

Mandarin beginners are deserved to know these phonetic symbols. If you have no idea of it, it's just like learning Japanese with Gana rather than Roman letters.

Another pro of Bopomofo is its efficiency in typing. 2~5 key inputs of Bopomofo to compose 1 Chinese character, while 3~8 inputs of Roman letters.

* I recommend this online tool to type with Bopomo, "www.i2bopomo.com" if you don't have a Chinese keyboard.

4 comments:

  1. Unknown17 December 2016 at 11:12

    Hello Jia-yan,

    I am very happy to see the zhu-yin version of Ju Hua Tai. I have had a lot of good time singing to this song. My Mandarin is not good enough to read the traditional characters, but I grew up learning zhu-yin and not ping-ying (which I find is not good for correct pronunciation).

    I was hoping that you also had the lyrics to Qing Hua Ci and Fei Yu Qing both by Jay Chou. I would appreciate it so much if you could make this and would even be willing to offer a donation.

    Thanks again!

    Nick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown17 December 2016 at 11:18

    Also, what is the program that you use to type the zhu-yin and the characters? I know you suggested www.i2bopomo.com, but it doesn't have the zhu-yin on the side.

    This way I can ask my mum to do it for me! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. linjiayan20 December 2016 at 00:07

      Hello Nicholas, Nice to see your feedback.

      1: The song 青花瓷(Qing Hua Ci) is posted. I hope you enjoy it. :) If you are happy to donate, Paypal is the only way I know to transfer a small amount of money overseas. My Paypal account is: linjiayan@gmail.com . If Paypal is not available for you, that's fine too.

      2: I suppose "Fei, Yu-Qing費玉清" is the name of a male singer. Is the song 千里之外(Qian Li Zhi Wai) sung by Chou and Fei you'd like to know?

      3-1: I type Zhu-yin simply using the default language setting (Traditional Chinese) in MacOS and Windows; however, the key is to use a physical keyboard printed Zhu-yin symbols on it. I suggest you buy Zhu-yin stickers(注音貼紙) or a Taiwanese keyboard. It's not difficult to find on "PChome online", a Taiwanese overseas shopping website.

      3-2. Otherwise, go to "i2bopomo.com" and it should show Zhu-yin symbols mapping your keyboard. Simply type it, you'll get a few choices of characters with same pronunciation.

      Cheers
      Jiayan

      Delete
  3. linjiayan17 December 2016 at 15:26

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

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