Bopomofo Chinese Phonetic System

Chinese characters can be a major stumbling block for students of Mandarin. There are thousands of characters and the only way to learn their meaning and pronunciation is by rote. Fortunately, there are phonetic systems that aid in the study of Chinese characters. The phonetics are used in textbooks and dictionaries so that students can begin associating sounds and meanings with specific characters. Pinyin The most common phonetic system is Pinyin. It is used to teach Mainland Chinese school children, and it is also widely used by foreigners learning Mandarin as a second language. Pinyin is a Romanization system. It uses the Roman alphabet to represent the sounds of spoken Mandarin. The familiar letters make Pinyin look easy. However, many of the Pinyin pronunciations are quite different from the English alphabet. For example, the Pinyin c is pronounced with a ts sound. Bopomofo Pinyin is certainly not the only phonetic system for Mandarin. There are other Romanization systems, and then there is Zhuyin Fuhao, otherwise known as Bopomofo. Zhuyin Fuhao uses symbols which are based on Chinese characters to represent the sounds of spoken Mandarin. These are the same sounds which are represented by Pinyin, and in fact there is a one-to-one correspondence between Pinyin and Zhuyin Fuhao. The first four symbols of Zhuyin Fuhao are bo po mo fo (pronounced buh puh muh fuh), which gives the common name Bopomofo – sometimes shortened to bopomo. Bopomofo is used in Taiwan to teach school children, and it is also a popular input method for writing Chinese characters on computers and handheld devices such as cell phones. Children’s books and teaching materials in Taiwan almost always have Bopomofo symbols printed next to the Chinese characters. It is also used in dictionaries. Advantages of Bopomofo Bopomofo symbols are based on Chinese characters, and in some cases they are identical. Learning Bopomofo, therefore, gives Mandarin students a head start to reading and writing Chinese. Sometimes students who start learning Mandarin Chinese with Pinyin become too dependent on it, and once characters are introduced they are at a loss.   Another important advantage to Bopomofo is its status as an independent phonetic system. Unlike Pinyin or other Romanization systems, Bopomofo symbols cannot be confused with other pronunciations. The main disadvantage to Romanization is that students often have preconceived ideas about the pronunciation of the Roman alphabet. For example, the Pinyin letter â€Å"q† has a â€Å"ch† sound, and it can take some effort to make this association. On the other hand, the Bopomofo symbol ã„‘ is not associated with any other sound than its Mandarin pronunciation. Computer Input Computer keyboards with Zhuyin Fuhao symbols are available. This makes it fast and efficient to input Chinese characters using a Chinese Character IME (Input Method Editor) like the one included with Windows XP. The Bopomofo input method can be used with or without tone marks. Characters are input by spelling the sound, followed by either the tone mark or the space bar. A list of candidate characters appears. Once a character is selected from this list, another list of commonly used characters may pop up. Only In Taiwan Zhuyin Fuhao was developed in the early 20th century. In the 1950s, Mainland China switched over to Pinyin as its official phonetic system, although some dictionaries from the Mainland still include Zhuyin Fuhao symbols. Taiwan continues to use Bopomofo for teaching school children. Taiwanese teaching material aimed at foreigners usually uses Pinyin, but there are a few publications for adults which use Bopomofo. Zhuyin Fuhao is also used for some of Taiwans Aboriginal languages. Bopomofo and Pinyin Comparison Table Zhuyin Pinyin b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh ch sh r z c s a o e ai ei ao ou an en ang eng er i u u

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Essay

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was delivered by Abraham Lincoln. This bold and progressive move by the President declared that all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free (The Library of Congress, 2014). While Lincoln now harbors the fame for ending slavery, his proclamation initially only ended slavery in those states that attempted to separate from the union. The proclamation authorized the recruitment of former slaves into the Union Armies and promoted the eventual creation of a Union without slavery. It was this strategic use of the legal system that allowed†¦show more content†¦Skills that are acquired through having a traditional paying job such as budgeting, saving, shopping were not developed nor provided while enslaved. The Masters also never taught the slaves how to care for themselves and wit hout money or education, they also now faced major health concerns. Poorly clothed, homeless and malnourished, the newly freed slaves were exposed to many diseases. Yellow fever, dysentery and other diseases killed off approximatley1 million former slaves. That is a staggering number as it does not take in account the number of slaves that were lynched, beaten or worked to death by former slave owners or by Klansmen. Additionally, this number does not consider the amount of runaways that fought and died for the Union armies. Many runaway slaves perusing freedom enlisted in the Union army to protect themselves and their families, under the assumption they would eventually gain their freedom. â€Å"Historians of the Civil War have long acknowledged that two-thirds of all military casualties came from disease rather than heroic battle† (Schuessler, 2012), thus many of these runaways never received true emancipation. For those that did survive, they were living in horrible conditions that multiplied the aforementioned conditions for these now ‘freed’ people. At wars end, the Former slaves faced a huge health crisis as the smallpox epidemic spread through the South to freed slaves traveling to theShow MoreRelatedAbraham Lincoln And The Emancipation Proclamation2067 Words   |  9 Pages Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation: Was Lincoln a Racist? 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The Last Song - Review free essay sample

Ever since, Ronnie has refused to talk to him or to play their shared passion, the piano, and becomes a rebel. Upon arrival, Jonah immediately bonds with Steve over a stained glass window that Steve has been recreating for the local church after the original burned down in a mysterious arson. Ronnie, however, is hostile. At her request, Steve boards up his beloved piano. He also begins writing a piano composition using a piano owned by the church, but struggles with its ending.At the towns annual carnival, Ronnie collides with beach volleyball player Will Blakelee as he dives for a ball. Ronnie storms off and meets gothic Blaze, who instantly befriends Ronnie. When Ronnie is accused of shoplifting, Steve surprises Ronnie by believing her when she tells him she was framed, and she begins to soften towards him. Steve shows Ronnie, a vegetarian and animal lover, a Sea Turtle nest Jonah found near their home. We will write a custom essay sample on The Last Song Review or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Ronnie vows to protect the endangered creatures, bringing her back in contact with Will, an aquarium volunteer.They soon fall in love and spend several blissful weeks together, though their romance is troubled; Wills mother and his ex-girlfriend attempt to drive them apart. Jonah and Ronnie notice Steve is becoming progressively weaker. They are shocked when he begins to cough up blood the same night the Sea Turtle nest hatches. Steve reveals the reason he asked them to visit: he is dying of stomach cancer, with only a few months left to live. Ronnie is further stressed when Will reveals Scotts secret, causing her to furiously break up with Will two days before he leaves for Vanderbilt. At the end of summer, Kim and Steve insist Jonah returns to school, but Ronnie refuses to leave. Months pass, and Steves health deteriorates. Ronnie takes Steve to see them install the stained-glass window in the church when construction resumed because the Blakelees decide to anonymously fund the rebuilding of the church. Ronnie grows closer to Steve and secretly finishes his composition for him. In Steves final days, Ronnie breaks down the boarding around Steves piano, with Blazes help, and uses it to play the composition. AudienceThe book maybe isnt something for an older person, and is quite teeny in its storyline, all the characters are kids who have just left school and are getting ready to go to college, so it is written mainly for that sort of age group. The book does involve some violence and drinking which might not be appropriate for younger readers, but the story line and the idea was more of teen appropriate. Author’s Intentions The author’s intentions of this book were to just write a love story about a teenage girl who falls in love over the summer.Rating I give this book 4 stars out of 5, because it was so well writing, and it was the type of book that made me realize not to take my grandparents for granted. Opinion The book is amazing! I read this after I had watched the film, so I think it was ruined a little bit by that as I found myself waiting for things to happen, which they of course didnt as the film was changed slightly from the book, I think that ruined the book a little bit for me. While reading the book, I characterized Ronnie completely differently.While reading the book, I got the impression that Ronnie was an angry, miserable girl, but the movie portrayed her as â€Å"bad† and a rebel, which she wasn’t. The story is very sad, and has a lot of twists and turns which a lot of people wont see coming.. . if I hadnt watched the film and known basically how the story ended, I would never have seen most of the things coming which happened. And I loved that one BIG twist in the book is not in the film, it made the book a little more exciting for me.