Articles about Pinyin, Chinese language learning, and typing in Mandarin
Pinyin is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese. It was developed in the 1950s and has since become the most widely used method for transcribing Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet. Here's how it came to be, and why it matters.
Read more →Learning Mandarin Chinese has a reputation for being impossibly difficult. Some of that reputation is earned, but much of it comes from approaching the language with the wrong expectations. Here's a realistic look at what works.
Read more →One of the first decisions Chinese learners face is whether to focus on Pinyin, characters, or both. The answer isn't as straightforward as most textbooks suggest, and it depends on what you actually want to do with the language.
Read more →Most people associate Pinyin with foreign students learning Chinese. But Pinyin plays a much larger role in Chinese-speaking societies than outsiders realize — from phone keyboards to government policy.
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