pronunciation in taiwan

[Lu]

one more mistake: zhai=chai and ji=chi whay should ch represent two different sounds? the way that ch is used in WG is very tricky and will cause a lot of mistakes specially for a beginner.

Yes, because in pinyin, no one letter ever gets used for different sounds, so si rhymes with ji, yan with wan and yu with chu and liu :-/

Try learning the system, and using it as intensively as you have used pinyin over the years. Then come back and compare the two. It's so easy to bash something you don't know well, just like many Taiwanese who criticize Hanyu pinyin or POJ and say they 'can't read it', no really, might that be because you never learned it and are thus not familiar with how it works?

Beginner mistakes are made in pinyin as well; W-G gets used badly more often than pinyin, perhaps because few people learn it well and fewer care about using it well, but pinyin mistakes are made too. Countless are the times people write Xian for the famous city, where it should be Xi'an.

[imron]

(take luan and quan - they both have the 'an' suffix

Actually, you're just looking at it wrong. One has the -uan final, and the other has the -üan final, it's just that when following j, q and x, the ü is written as u, because the normal u sound can never follow j, q or x. So this example is still consistent.

[bamboo]

The best written pronunciation guide is still hanyu pinyin 汉语拼音 because of its ease of use、学习 and ubiquitous appeal as an input method on the PC. Learning ZhuYinFuHao ㄅㄆㄇㄈis extremely useful in clarifying what you should have understood with hanyu pinyin as imron pointed out with an example up above.

If you regularly have to use 汉语拼音 to type out pages and pages of Chinese characters on the computer screen or send SMS, I am sure this is an immense help in reinforcing your pronunciation of certain new characters. So far I only know of one input method on the PC: 九方（台湾版本） that allows you to input characters by 'spelling' or 拼-ing 注音符号。 But the going is so slow, because of lack of practice in reading 符号 /中文书 and infuriating for someone whose time is probably better spent reading Chinese characters!

[atitarev]

I am also very positive about Hanyu Pinyin in terms of typing in Chinese, it made computing in Chinese a whole lot easier. As for pronunciation, I already said that if Pinyin is understood it is very consistent in rendering standard Mandarin pronunciation. My teacher commented recently commented that I am better than him with -n/-ng finals, I never mix them up. I should say that because I use Pinyin to type in chatrooms, I am good at it but unfortunately, I am very behind in writing Hanzi by hand.

[rezaf]

If you regularly have to use 汉语拼音 to type out pages and pages of Chinese characters on the computer screen or send SMS, I am sure this is an immense help in reinforcing your pronunciation of certain new characters

And maybe the best way of forgetting Chinese characters. Isn't it strange how often educated people in China 写错? Sometimes even I can them their mistakes.

[Lu]

If you regularly have to use 汉语拼音 to type out pages and pages of Chinese characters on the computer screen or send SMS, I am sure this is an immense help in reinforcing your pronunciation of certain new characters.

Actually I disagree, bopomofo is better for this, in my opinion, because it forces you to remember the tones with the rest of the pronounciation. Recently I've started typing in bopomofo whenever I can, not because it's faster (it's not, although my speed is improving) but because it forces me to learn the tones. Pinyin makes one lazy in this aspect.

[imron]

And maybe the best way of forgetting Chinese characters.

And that's why I like to type with 五笔 :-)