Friday, February 26, 2010

Back to basics


We have started to learn Chinese. Step 1: Learn the sounds. Children in Taiwan all learn a phonetic alphabet called BoPoMoFo, or Zhuyin Fuhao, so we are too. In the picture above you can see our workbook where we are learning to write the first two "letters". Flashback to kindergarten! Jeremiah and I quickly realized it is not easy learning how to write a new alphabet. The alternative to learning this alphabet is to use pinyin, which is a romanization to represent chinese sounds (which is difficult because the sounds we know from english don't always correspond with the sound in chinese). Our flashcards have both bopomofo and pinyin.

PS Awesome pen, right? I sure do eat a lot of carrots, why not write with one? Thanks TK, I love it!

5 comments:

  1. my brother learned chinese for the air force. He loves freaking out chinese people (here in america) because he's tall, pale and blonde. We go into a chinese restaurant and he talks to them in their language and there's a double or triple take.
    Magical.
    Also, he said getting well-known books in Chinese helped him learn how to read. Like Harry Potter or similar.
    good luck!

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  2. woow -- you guys are amazing. good job learning something difficult. the only mandarin i know is something my friend shared -- it sounds like 'pok quee' and translates to 'white devil' i'm probably way off on this.

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  3. Awesome! I can't wait to chat in Mandarin with you guys!

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  4. Amy - I can't wait to get to the point where we can chat in mandarin like your brother, so far it's sounds and broken phrases! Thanks for stopping by and the mention on your blog.

    Leela - not sure about that one, let you know if we learn it :)

    Brett - We can't wait either! Saw some good looking teapots on your blog!

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  5. Hmmm nice book u have there may i know whats the title ?

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