Thanks for the info. Here in the US you can buy any number of books teaching Chinese as a foreign language. I've been trying for years to get my hands on native Chinese elementary books. I guess romanized characters and bopomofo symbols both look like hieroglypics for the beginning student learning phonetics. Jim Will Yardley wrote: On 2008-08-19, Space Cowboy <netstuff@ix.netcom....

So the elementary teacher would use the romanized characters 'cha2' (or rising tone) for pronunciation of the tea character? I thought modern Chinese are ignorant of PinYin. I also thought the mapped 37 phonetic symbols Zhuyin FuHao keyboard is mainly used by mainland Chinese as well as Taiwan. Jim Will Yardley wrote: On 2008-08-19, Lewis Perin <perin@panix.com> wrote: Space ...

On Aug 19, 6:43 am, Lewis Perin <pe...@panix.com> wrote: Alan <a...@alanandmike.com> writes: I thought I heard Bob Costas say "BEI JING" last night, but either I misheard or he accidentally said it more-or-less correctly; he went back to "bay-zhing" for the rest of the night. Lew, I've never been able to make sense of the phonological directions. Even sounds I ...

Space Cowboy <netstuff@ix.netcom.com> writes: For proper phonology you've got to get the xray pictures of the skull and tongue, drawings for the squeamish. How does a native Chinese speaker know how to pronounce a character they've never seen before? In general, I don't think they can. But often part of a character will give a phonetic clue, and I'm sure a person with a large ...

For proper phonology you've got to get the xray pictures of the skull and tongue, drawings for the squeamish. How does a native Chinese speaker know how to pronounce a character they've never seen before? At what point in the Chinese education system are you weaned off Bopomofo? Jim Lewis Perin wrote: Alan <alan@alanandmike.com> writes: I thought I heard Bob Costas say "BEI ...

Alan <alan@alanandmike.com> writes: I thought I heard Bob Costas say "BEI JING" last night, but either I misheard or he accidentally said it more-or-less correctly; he went back to "bay-zhing" for the rest of the night. Lew, I've never been able to make sense of the phonological directions. Even sounds I already know how to make! If you go to http://www.zein.se/...

When it comes down to it, Chinese is a tongue twister even the easy stuff. The one I hear on CCTV that sounds different every time is xie,xie for Thanks. I think I can go into a restaurant and order a Tsing Tao beer correctly because that is a commercial on CCTV. Jim Alan wrote: I thought I heard Bob Costas say "BEI JING" last night, but either I misheard or he accidentally ...

I thought I heard Bob Costas say "BEI JING" last night, but either I misheard or he accidentally said it more-or-less correctly; he went back to "bay-zhing" for the rest of the night. Lew, I've never been able to make sense of the phonological directions. Even sounds I already know how to make! Alan

Its pretty hard carrying around a college text book in Chinatown. I carry a pocket tourist guide with the pinyin pronunciation guide in front not because it would help any tourist but a reminder for me who has already done some homework. The zh sound is almost a giveme from zhongguo used on CCTV. Of course Beijing is every other word on CCTV now. PS I saw a CCTV piece yesterday on ...

Space Cowboy <netstuff@ix.netcom.com> writes: According to one college textbook (Integrated Chinese, Tao-chung Yao, Yuehua Liu et all) "J is an unaspirated voiceless palatal affricate." (whatever the hell that means). "To produce this sound, first raise the front of the tongue to the hard palate and press the tip of the tongue against the back of the lower teeth, and then loose...