Would be better if you combined pinyin into ‘words’ (词) instead of separate ‘characters’ (字). ‘pǔ tōng’ is easier to apprehend as an entity if written ‘pǔtōng’.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I totally get the value of combining syllables into word units — but I’ve kept the character-by-character format because it’s how I learned, and it matches how text is laid out in authentic Chinese materials. Combined Pinyin wasn’t mainstream when I started, and most native resources still follow the single-character layout. I appreciate your suggestion!
I think I started learning Chinese in about 1976 using de Francis. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember if he wrote them as cí or zì, but I think it was the former. Of course I learnt the characters at the same time (I was already learning Japanese), so I wasn’t just a “pinyin man”. I’m curious what materials you learnt your Chinese from. I only learnt from de Francis for a while; after that I studied in fits and starts from various materials until I went to China in 1993. I don’t remember any zì-based materials at all. Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Greg! I think I started out with those same books—a big green one and a red one, if I remember right. I self-studied for a few years in the States before heading to Taiwan in 1984. I studied at 国语日报语言中心 for two years while teaching English and later working at a local hotel.
In 1986, I moved to Hangzhou for a hotel job. At that time, I had never even heard of the concept of 词. I was still living in the world of 字—individual characters—until I started using the 新华汉语词典. The old 汉语字典 was becoming too basic; I couldn’t find the combinations (词) I needed anymore. I think I figured that out just browsing bookstores and maybe asking the staff or friends—who knows, really? haha
The idea of character combinations came to me naturally, not by scrunching Pinyin into “words.” I’ll never forget the moment I asked someone what 发展中国家 meant—and I couldn’t get past 中国! It was like a light turned on. I realized I had to look beyond individual characters and read for meaning, not just groupings.
Now, all these years later, I’m reading high-level novels and am almost done with 《三体》. It’s been a long journey. But even now, I still find that keeping Pinyin syllables separated helps learners see each character as a full unit—while still recognizing how its meaning shifts in context with others.
Just FYI, I published a book earlier this year called Pinyin and the Art of Tones. It really captures my perspective, which is deeply shaped by this personal learning path. Happy to chat more anytime!
Incidentally, there’s a guy who calls himself “Suragch” who studied in Inner Mongolia and has a website about learning Mongolian (http://www.studymongolian.net). Did you ever run across him? I think he’s now moved on to software development.
Wow, saw your life trajectory at Amazon! We never crossed paths (at least I don’t think we did) but there are strange parallels. I studied Japanese at uni (wanted to do Chinese as well but at a crucial point got talked out of it) went to Japan where I lived for 16 years. Decided I really wanted to study Chinese and went to Beijing (rather than Taiwan), studied for some years before getting some rather uninspiring jobs in China (including a hotel!), in Beijing and Hainan. On one of those jobs got posted to Macau on brief stints and to Mongolia for a couple of longer stints, and finally decided to go to Mongolia shortly before I entered my dotage to study the language properly (actually learnt Mongol bichig from Inner Mongolians). Now back in Australia. It’s very different, I guess, but there are strange parallels…
Would be better if you combined pinyin into ‘words’ (词) instead of separate ‘characters’ (字). ‘pǔ tōng’ is easier to apprehend as an entity if written ‘pǔtōng’.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I totally get the value of combining syllables into word units — but I’ve kept the character-by-character format because it’s how I learned, and it matches how text is laid out in authentic Chinese materials. Combined Pinyin wasn’t mainstream when I started, and most native resources still follow the single-character layout. I appreciate your suggestion!
I think I started learning Chinese in about 1976 using de Francis. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember if he wrote them as cí or zì, but I think it was the former. Of course I learnt the characters at the same time (I was already learning Japanese), so I wasn’t just a “pinyin man”. I’m curious what materials you learnt your Chinese from. I only learnt from de Francis for a while; after that I studied in fits and starts from various materials until I went to China in 1993. I don’t remember any zì-based materials at all. Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Greg! I think I started out with those same books—a big green one and a red one, if I remember right. I self-studied for a few years in the States before heading to Taiwan in 1984. I studied at 国语日报语言中心 for two years while teaching English and later working at a local hotel.
In 1986, I moved to Hangzhou for a hotel job. At that time, I had never even heard of the concept of 词. I was still living in the world of 字—individual characters—until I started using the 新华汉语词典. The old 汉语字典 was becoming too basic; I couldn’t find the combinations (词) I needed anymore. I think I figured that out just browsing bookstores and maybe asking the staff or friends—who knows, really? haha
The idea of character combinations came to me naturally, not by scrunching Pinyin into “words.” I’ll never forget the moment I asked someone what 发展中国家 meant—and I couldn’t get past 中国! It was like a light turned on. I realized I had to look beyond individual characters and read for meaning, not just groupings.
Now, all these years later, I’m reading high-level novels and am almost done with 《三体》. It’s been a long journey. But even now, I still find that keeping Pinyin syllables separated helps learners see each character as a full unit—while still recognizing how its meaning shifts in context with others.
Just FYI, I published a book earlier this year called Pinyin and the Art of Tones. It really captures my perspective, which is deeply shaped by this personal learning path. Happy to chat more anytime!
Incidentally, there’s a guy who calls himself “Suragch” who studied in Inner Mongolia and has a website about learning Mongolian (http://www.studymongolian.net). Did you ever run across him? I think he’s now moved on to software development.
Wow! That's cool. No, I never ran into him. I was there from 1995-1999. But it's super awesome that he uses the traditional script!
Wow, saw your life trajectory at Amazon! We never crossed paths (at least I don’t think we did) but there are strange parallels. I studied Japanese at uni (wanted to do Chinese as well but at a crucial point got talked out of it) went to Japan where I lived for 16 years. Decided I really wanted to study Chinese and went to Beijing (rather than Taiwan), studied for some years before getting some rather uninspiring jobs in China (including a hotel!), in Beijing and Hainan. On one of those jobs got posted to Macau on brief stints and to Mongolia for a couple of longer stints, and finally decided to go to Mongolia shortly before I entered my dotage to study the language properly (actually learnt Mongol bichig from Inner Mongolians). Now back in Australia. It’s very different, I guess, but there are strange parallels…
That's really cool! Yes, interesting parallels. Thanks for sharing!!
I am getting in the habit of using it daily. To use it a lot more, I need to get GPT Plus, which costs money. Might be worth it