Bridget Nee and her silly notion that Pinyin is not for comprehension.

 

Bridget Nee is from Shanghai and now living in NZ. In Shanghai, she was a teacher.

On 22.7.24 Bridget Nee said the following:

'Forget the news from someone outside of China. Written Characters are the only formal ones in everyday language usage. Pinyin is for the Young kids, mainly as a bridge from oral to written. Don’t blame the teachers!'

I then commented:

I have heard this before. Someone says such silly things on social media and others jump on the bandwagon and repeat it as if it is the Gospel truth.

Is there anyone who thinks that Pinyin is only for young kids?

There were no comments from Bridget Nee or her friends from Shanghai. She said they are all busy making a living.

Anyway, it is arrogant for her to think that anyone from outside China cannot comment on the wrongdoings of the Chinese in China. Deng Xiaoping’s open-door policy includes adopting ideas from outside China.

Who gave this idea to the Chinese that Pinyin is only for young kids?

On 6.8.24 on my post on Facebook:

Bridget Nee said:

Reading, in Chinese, has 2 meanings, one is reading aloud/ speaking, and the other is reading comprehension. Pinyin focuses on the first one, so my teachers just used that to facilitate our early childhood literacy course:)

My comment now:

When discussing about dyslexic kids on Twitter, I have heard similar things from many of the teachers and so-called PhDs.

A child is taught to decode first and then gain vocabulary before being taught to comprehend. This is true in English as well as in Mandarin.

Bridget is not the only Chinese who thinks that Pinyin is for reading and not for comprehension.  Like many others, she is mistaken. Unfortunately, many teachers in China today believe this too. This is because education ministers like the current Education minister of China Mr. Huai Jinpeng don’t know that Pinyin is being taught wrongly in China. They then blame Pinyin and not the wrong way it is being taught. Someone should ask Mr. Huai Jinpeng to get some of the teachers in China to discuss this matter with me.

I have said it many times and I will say it again, as long as you have learned a particular word and it is in your vocabulary you will be able to read anything written in Pinyin and understand what you read. This means anyone can comprehend anything written in Pinyin as long as the words in that article are in his vocabulary. One can read anything in Pinyin but may not understand what one reads if that word is not in one’s vocabulary.  

If you have not learned a particular character you will not be able to read it or comprehend it.

Similar to, reading material written in Chinese characters one may not understand a word or two in Pinyin. All that one has to do is copy-paste that word onto a Chinese dictionary and obtain its meaning.

As an adult learning Chinese to speak Mandarin one does not need Chinese Characters.

If you don’t know anything about Pinyin it is best not to say that Pinyin is not for comprehension.