我需要學注音嗎? Should I learn Zhuyin (bopomofo)? I heard Taiwanese people only use Zhuyin. Is it useful?
street vendor’s shop sign at luodong night market in Taiwan
💬 注音是什麼? What exactly is zhuyin?
Zhuyin, also known as Bopomofo, is a phonetic notation system used in Taiwan. As a teacher from Taiwan, as much as I advocate for Taiwanese Mandarin, I’d say whether or not you learn, it depends on your personal goals.
Learning Zhuyin can be particularly worthwhile if you have specific language goals focused on Taiwan, for example living, working or studying there or communicating with Taiwanese friends, partners, spouses, and their families.
Here are some advantages my students have told me they’ve experience from learning Zhuyin:
♡ 中文版本在這裡 On my Podcast, I’ve explained in Chinese so that you can practice your listening. Listen to this episode HERE.♡
可以看得懂台灣的新聞媒體 Understand Taiwanese News & Media
News articles and TV News Title often include use Zhuyin to resonate with viewers, to get closer with the audience. If you watch some Taiwanese youtuber’s channels, you’ll notice that they often use Zhuyin as well.
2. 注音可以讓你的發音比較準確 Zhuyin helps with pronunciation
Due to the fact that Zhuyin is so different from pinyin, many learners of Chinese say they often get confused with pinyin which reminds them of the alphabet and their native language. They end up pronouncing Chinese badly.
Most second language learners of Chinese are taught Hanyu Pinyin, which uses the Latin alphabet to express the sounds of Chinese words. However, many find that they get confused with the sounds those letters represent in their native language.
Because Zhuyin uses symbols derived from ancient Chinese characters to represent the component sounds of Chinese words, it avoids this problem. Students learn to associate the correct sound with each symbol and won’t confuse them with their native tongue.
3. 了解台灣人之間的笑話 You’ll understand inside jokes among Taiwanese people
A lot of times, shop signs and daily-life language like Line messages are full of Zhuyin, for example, ㄟ ㄎㄎ(I’ve explained the meaning in this video). We express ourselves with the help of Zhuyin.
If you don’t understand Zhuyin, you won’t get it.
4. 如果你懂注音，你的中文就可以進入我們的心坎裡 Once you know Zhuyin, you speak to Taiwanese people’s hearts.
As a vivid example, some students write “xie xie” to me, which is always nice but also very standard. But if you wrote “ㄒㄧㄝˋㄒㄧㄝ”, I’d really smile because it’s cute. It’s so Taiwanese.
In conclusion, once you start to notice and learn Zhuyin, you’ll experience what pinyin learners don’t. Especially when you reach intermediate level. It’s a fun journey that takes you further in the Chinese learning experience.
It’s also really not difficult to switch from pinyin to Zhuyin! I made a BOPOMOFO Youtube tutorial. It only takes 10 minutes to watch.
Finally, I want to encourage you to notice if there’s any zhuyin around you, learn Chinese with zhuyin materials, type in Zhuyin and read in zhuyin! It will be fun and worth it!
💬 臺灣華語注音學習資源 Taiwanese Mandarin Learning Resources with zhuyin
I’m aware that it is hard to find Mandarin resources with Zhuyin (bopomofo). That’s why all of my course content provides Zhuyin. Do not hesitate to check out my programs.
🇹🇼 Taiwanese Mandarin Conversation Training Course (beginners-intermediate) - No More Freezing up in Conversation & Converse with Taiwanese People with Confidence
🇹🇼 Level up Complete propgram (pre-intermediate-advanced) - Comprehend Taiwanese Media & Converse with Taiwanese People more deeply
For any quesitons, feel free to ask here.
