Pinyin Misunderstood (Part 2)

 

The following is from Quora, posted one year ago.

What are the disadvantages of teaching Chinese using Pinyin instead of learning all those Chinese characters?

Somnath Mukherjee answered: MSc. from Dr. C V Raman University

There are a few disadvantages to teaching Chinese using Pinyin instead of learning all those Chinese characters.

Pinyin is not a perfect representation of Chinese pronunciation. Some sounds in Chinese cannot be represented by Pinyin and some sounds in Pinyin can be pronounced in different ways depending on the context. This can make it difficult for learners to develop accurate pronunciation.

 

The following is how I would respond:

This is a complete misunderstanding of Pinyin. I am not against learning characters. That is what I am doing now. I am learning the Chinese characters via Pinyin.

You can read anything written using Chinese characters if you have learned those characters. If it is a character you have not learned (especially in simplified Chinese) you will not know how to read it.

One can read anything in Hanyu Pinyin accurately but may not know the meaning of words not previously learned.

Both Chinese characters and words in Pinyin can be easily checked using the dictionaries available on the Internet.

As long as one is familiar with the words one can chat on social media using Pinyin. You can understand and be understood even without tone marks.

Since Mandarin is a language that relies on context more than English any sentence written in Pinyin will be understood by the other party reading what one has written. This is provided it is in one’s vocabulary.

There is no single word in Mandarin that cannot be pronounced or can be mispronounced using Pinyin.

The problem associated with Pinyin is that teachers are not teaching Pinyin correctly. Pinyin uses syllables and not sounds represented by individual letters.

Somnath Mukherjee:

Learning Chinese characters helps learners to read and write Chinese. If you only know Pinyin, you will be limited to reading and writing texts that are written in Pinyin. This can be restrictive, as many Chinese texts are not written in Pinyin.

The following is how I would respond:

Pinyin was introduced because many Chinese were mispronouncing many words. Many of the Chinese in Malaysia, who did not learn Pinyin, are still pronouncing many words wrongly. At dinner tables, you can hear them asking for chu instead of cu 醋. In a restaurant, they can ask for exploded chicken 炸 zhà instead of fried chicken 炸 zhá. They can read the character  赚 as zhuan when it is supposed to be read as 赚 zuàn. These are just a few examples among hundreds.

Children today who have learned Pinyin will not make the mistakes above.

Somnath Mukherjee:

Here are some additional thoughts on the disadvantages of teaching Chinese using Pinyin only:

It can be difficult to remember the Pinyin for all the Chinese words. There are thousands of Chinese words, and each has its own Pinyin. This can be a lot of information to remember, especially for learners who are new to the language.

The following is how I would respond:

It would appear that the author does not understand Pinyin. All that one needs to know to read anything written in Mandarin is the 408 syllables. Period.