2010-09-16

2010-02-17

Easy ㄅㄆㄇ: ㄆ (Updated)





Modified for users without Chinese interface.


Easy ㄅㄆㄇ: ㄅ (Updated)





Modified for users without Chinese interface.

2010-02-02

年的由來 Story of Chinese New Year



摘自:僑教雙週刊



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Why we paste the “春联” ( "chun lian" ) upside down?

2010-01-20

Hanyu Pinyin vs. Zhuyin Fuhao(Bopomofo) 拼音還是注音好?

Hanyu Pinyin and Zhuyin Fuhao(Bopomofo) are both phonetic systems for the Chinese language; the only difference between the two is that each uses their own unique symbols to represent the same pronunciation. These systems assist people in learning to read, write and speak Mandarin. It is a Chinese teacher’s job to pick a good tool to aid the students’ education in Chinese. The question is: which of the two is better for fostering the correct pronunciation?

When learning a language, it is necessary to use the very symbols of that language.

For example, Mandarin dose not have the phonic “th” like English does. It is impossible to find a Chinese character or symbol to represent the pronunciation of “th”. This is also the reason why our English teacher did not use Zhuyin Fuhao to teach us how to speak English. You can not learn English well using Chinese phonic system and vice versa. Hanyu Pinyin uses letters for the phonics that do not exist in English; using English letters to learn Chinese is both too confusing and unreasonable.


Some educators claim that by using English letters, Hanyu Pinyin is easier for “English as first language” students. Well, this is not really so. For English speaking students, Hanyu Pinyin actually makes them even more confused because they already have profound concept regarding the combinations of letters and how to pronounce them in English. Regardless of their ages, people kept asking me why Hanyu Pinyin is so awkward and complicated; this is so especially for those as young as grade one students, who have just begun to lean spelling and phonics. It takes more time for them to be acquainted with the differences between Hanyu Pinyin and normal English. By using Hanyu Pinyin, many students still can not pronounce Mandarin correctly.

There is an unexpected drawback for non-English-speaking people who are familiar with Hanyu Pinyin. We attended a Bible study group several years ago, and there were some friends from China who use Hanyu Pinyin since they were young. We could hardly understand what they were saying unless we looked into the Bible while they read aloud from the text. For example, they pronounced “said” as “side”…, etc. In short, they simply pronounced the English word using Hanyu Pinyin phonics. I think they will have trouble communicating with others in English if they do not improve their English phonics.

To tell the truth, I personally consider that the only advantage for Hanyu Pinyin is “computer key-in”. However, although most of the computers use English keyboards, it is still very convenient to key in words using other non-English language. Both Microsoft and Mac OS support Zhuyin input. There is no problem with computing once you are familiar with Zhuyin Fuhao.

Nothing can replace Zhuyin Fuhao especially its ability to assist correct Mandarin pronunciation. Taiwan has been running the Zhuyin system for decades and has some very complete education tools to help students learn Zhuyin Fuhao. In addition, every text book and children’s book has Zhuyin Fuhao to assist reading. Thus it is a shame to abandon such a good system. However, unfortunately, because of political issues, Hanyu Pinyin will unavoidably become the basis of teaching Chinese.

I am using Zhuyin Fuhao plus “multi-media material” to help my students build up a solid foundation of Chinese phonics. Then I will introduce Hanyu Pinyin when their knowledge of Mandarin pronunciations is mature enough. So far this way of teaching is very rewarding, because Zhuyin Fuhao really helps my students speak well pronunced Mandarin!

拼音還是注音好?眾說紛紜,見仁見智。隨便Google一下,不論是海外的中文教學,還是國內的教育機構,都可發現很多學者及教師在爭論這個議題。

其實拼音和注音都一樣,都是輔導華語教學的工具,只是用不同的符號來表達同樣的發音,兩者都需要中文老師來引導學生入門。只是老師在教學時,應該如何選擇適當的工具來幫助學生有正確的發音呢?


學什麼語言,就要用那個語言的符號。


舉個簡單的例子,英文th的發音,無法用任何注音符號或中文字來表達,因為華語並沒有英文th的音,這也是你的英文老師沒有用注音符號來教你英文發音的原因,用注音符號是絕對無法讀出正確的英文發音的。同樣的道理,英語沒有捲舌音,你用任何英文字母都無法拼出ㄓㄔㄕㄖ的音,漢語拼音硬用zh ch sh r 來代表ㄓㄔㄕㄖ只是徒增困擾。


有人主張對於以英文為母語的學生,教拼音要來得簡單,其實不盡然。他們對於那些字母的組合該發什麼音,已有先入為主的觀念。漢語拼音使用英文字母,然而超乎英文常理的組合方式卻常使我的學生(不論老少)不斷地問我為什麼。尤其是剛上小一的小朋友,才剛正式接觸英文拼字和發音,漢語拼音和英文會有明顯的衝突。孩子們需要加倍的時間去釐清兩者的不同,但還是容易混淆不清。


對於以英文為母語的學生來說,漢語拼音不僅複雜難懂難記,然而對於以中文為母語的學生,熟悉漢語拼音反而有意想不到的後遺症。數年前我們參加一位朋友舉辦的聖經讀書會(英文),有幾位中國來的朋友,如果你不看著聖經真的不知道他們在念什麼。像said念成side… 這完全是直接把漢語拼音套到英文發音上,我想他們得花好多功夫來改進發音,否則無法與人用英文溝通,因為這不是口音的問題,而是發音整個錯誤的問題。台灣主張漢語拼音的教育人士不知道有沒有預期到這樣的後果。


老實說,拼音的確有它的方便及好處,但也大多局限於電腦輸入方面。在輔助學生的漢語發音方面,注音符號有它無法取代的地位,注音符號在台灣推行相當成功:所有教材及童書都有注音標示來幫助拼讀。而且話說回來,PC的微軟與MAC的OS都有注音輸入法,所以注音符號在電腦的使用上是一樣方便的。


對於以英文為母語的學生,家裡沒有說中文的環境,一個禮拜不到兩個半小時的中文學校課程,家長無法幫忙的話,實在很難把中文學好。站在老師的立場只有希望能盡量幫助學生學習中文。目前我正使用注音符號配合多媒體教學,而且已在學生身上樂見到些小小成果。


不可否認的,漢語拼音也許是將來必然的趨勢。我的教學政策是:先熟悉注音符號把華語發音基礎打好,進而作為日後識字及發聲的輔助工具,等學生夠成熟後再導入漢語拼音,如此學生也比較能理解跟接受,相對的能縮短學習時間,並快樂成長!