Pinyin to characters

[Kenny同志]

I don't know. It might be so, though.

However I don't think it's a good way to put pinyin in the position of characters. After all, it is merely a phonetic representation, like English 音标. I can't imagine if I have to read English 音标 intead of its words to make things out.

[imron]

I don't disagree with you, I was just pointing out that the amount of exposure and practice one has with a given writing system plays a large role in how instant it is to recognise.

Incidentally, there are also some situations where pinyin is more clear than characters. Take for example the phrase 先进性教育 which is potentially ambiguous in characters (and the source of many jokes a few years back about political leaders taking part in advanced education activities) compared to the pinyin, where there is no ambiguity - xiānjìnxìng jiàoyù

[Kenny同志]

先进性教育

hehe, no one would take it for 先进（的） 性教育(advanced sex education). However, I don't think it is a good phrase, Anglicised Chinese it is.

suffix 性 and 度 are indiscriminately used.

For example: 这家酒店很知名（有名）.

fashionable phrasing is: 这家酒店知名度很高。

这家单位办事可靠。

fashionable version: 这家单位办事的可靠性很高。

[Yezze]

The class i have been taking for 3 years is an online Chinese class (through Michigan virtual high school), since it is not offered at my high school. We only meet once a week in a lab (in adobe connect for 1 hour), so for the previous 2 years we have only been using pinyin, and no text book. Now that we are in our 3rd year, we have a text book, and are starting to learn characters. My first 2 years of Chinese, they kept the pinyin together if it was "one word", such as diannao, but now, since we are learning characters, it is dian nao.

Just thought i would throw that out there. What do you think if this system? Bad, good, or it depends on what level you want to take your Chinese to in the future.

[anonymoose]

What do you think if this system? Bad, good, or it depends on what level you want to take your Chinese to in the future.

I don't think it makes much difference really. The more you become comfortable with characters, the less you will rely on pinyin anyway.

These arguments about whether to put spaces between syllables in pinyin or not are really only significant academically, because in the real world, you are unlikely to ever read anything extended in pinyin.

[Kenny同志]

In my way of thinking, pinyin is merely a tool to help one to pronounce. That's all.

[Kenny同志]

Sorry. I didn't see that anonymoose had made the corrections.

Puzzled.