Pinyin Chart

 当局者迷,旁观者清

 dāng jú zhě mí, páng guān zhě qīng 

When I thought of writing about the following chart the above proverb came to mind.

When you are playing chess, sometimes it’s not easy to make good a judgment since you've been so indulged in the game. Whereas, a person who sits next to you may have a better view or understanding of the situation thus to make a better decision than you. This proverb tells people that being involved in a matter may not guarantee a comprehensive overview of it due to too much concentration on gains and losses, while the onlookers, who have a calmer and more objective attitude, have a better grasp of what is going on.

 

The above is one of many Pinyin charts you may find on the internet.

Click on this link to see the chart clearly. LINK

On the top column you will see letters bpmfdtn until the end which is the letter r. 

On the left hand you will see letters i to the last cell down which shows un. 

There are no sound tracks for the letters b to h at the top. All other cells including the green column on the left have sound tracks. 

All together there are 410 cells. These are the only syllables in Mandarin. If a foreigner masters the sounds of these syllables he would be able to speak Mandarin well.

Now, let us look at the chart in-depth.

Click on the letter b to h on the top column. There are no sound track. The sound is exactly as in the English language. 

Click on the letter a on the left green column. Listen to the sound track.

Click on the cells downward under the letter b - ba, bai, bang, etc.

The above are the sounds of the letter b combined with the letters on the left column. 

Scroll downward until you see the sentence 'Ready to take your Chinese pinyin learning to the next level?

On the right hand scroll down until you see Pinyin Initials part 1 to 3. 

Listen to the video Pinyin Initials part 1. The narrator says that all the sounds of the consonants from the letter b on the top column to h are exactly as in the English language. This means these letters have no extraneous sounds. They are not bo,po,mo,fo, or be, pe,me,fe. The sounds of the initials should be as the video on my post. LINK

Just get your students to follow this Pinyin Chart instead of sounding out the consonants as under the bopomofo sound system. This will solve a lot of problems for kid learning English in Taiwan and in China. 

If the Chinese Government cannot teach pinyin properly it is their problem but China should not allow teachers from China teaching Pinyin wrongly on social media. 

Instead of just boasting about building bridges and railways China should also look at improving education.