Do you prefer websites to give pinyin transcriptions when hanzi are used?

[Hugh]

Hey all, I'd like to ask for some advice. I run a website about East Asian Studies, and can't decide whether it's better to provide pinyin transcriptions when I use hanzi, or to just give the hanzi alone.

Some of the factors:

Against giving transcriptions:

• Producing pinyin transcriptions is time consuming
  
• If there's no pinyin people can't use it as a crutch so they'll be encouraged to read characters
  
• There are good browser plugins available that can give pinyin and definitions
  

For:

• Some people are using browsers, e.g. on a smartphone, that don't have such plugins
  
• I know that people print off some of my content to use in class as it saves on preparation time; transcription would be useful to these people
  
• Characters alone can be intimidating to beginners
  
• Some people only ever study pinyin; it is designed to be a full writing system for Chinese after all
  

I'd be really grateful for any input on this.

Cheers guys

[大肚男]

For me personally, it depends on two factors

1) what level of Chinese are you offering. If it is beginner, then you probably have to give the pinyin.

2) whether the text will be accompanied by audio. A good example of that is slow-chinese. The lessons are read and are written in hanzi,

good luck on your project

[jkhsu]

Some people only ever study pinyin; it is designed to be a full writing system for Chinese after all

While this is probably true, I can't see how anyone serious about learning Chinese can skip learning the characters. In my opinion, I don't see any reason for you to provide pinyin transcriptions unless you're making text for an elementary level class. Once people get beyond the elementary level (first few months?), they should be learning characters + pinyin. Personally, I would learn characters + pinyin right from the very beginning.

[jbradfor]

Could you point us to an example? I just went to the web site in your signature and randomly opened this article, for example. If you mean "麦岛联通营业厅", for example, then no, I see no need to add pinyin. If one is at the level that knowing "麦岛联通营业厅" means anything, one does not need pinyin. If one needs pinyin, then IMHO "麦岛联通营业厅" is not what one should be learning now.

[crazy-meiguoren]

At my current level, I prefer to have the transcription option. As I get to know more characters, that will change. In any case, pinyin should never stand alone. There are too many words that have the same pinyin even though each word has its own hanzi, even those that have the same tone.

[jkhsu]

I agree that at the beginner level it helps to have the transcription. I had to use it for at least half a year. However, the transcribed text was the beginner level stuff that I was learning. It doesn't help to have advanced level text transcribed in pinyin. I can give you one example. I have this chengyu book from China that has all of the text transcribed in pinyin. However, the text is so advanced that it does me no good to have the pinyin if I don't know the characters. I still haven't read this book yet.

The only time I have found pinyin useful for text that is beyond my level is when I have to sing a song or make a speech. I used to have pinyin for songs and bring them to karaoke so that I can sing without having to know the characters. Same thing for speeches that I can read off of a prompt. However, having pinyin for characters that I didn't know has never helped me "know" the meaning of a character.

[Silent]

However, having pinyin for characters that I didn't know has never helped me "know" the meaning of a character.

Sure pinyin doesn't help in figuring out the meaning. It does help with pronunciation and looking up the meaning if needed. Without pinyin you have to look up all characters you don't know to be able to really learn it. A big handicap compared to phonetic languages.

That said, I prefer no pinyin. That is, I hate it when pinyin and hanzi are mixed. It distracts. If the pinyin is completely separate the added value of pinyin is deminished.

[jkhsu]

Sure pinyin doesn't help in figuring out the meaning. It does help with pronunciation and looking up the meaning if needed

Agreed. It's useful in paper based books. However, the OP is putting this on a website. If you can access the website you can access an online dictionary. I highly doubt anyone will actually open up their paper dictionary to find a meaning of a character/word on the website.

[Hofmann]

It depends on the material. If it's beginner level Mandarin, Pinyin would probably be appreciated. In popups (class="popup") if not written above as ruby characters. If it is not beginner but Mandarin, Pinyin would just waste your time, as your readers would only have to look up the few characters/words that they don't know. If it isn't Mandarin (e.g. Classical), Pinyin is pretty much useless.

[roddy]

I figure nowadays there's really no excuse for a student of Chinese to not be able to look something up very easily - whether that's a browser pop-up dictionary, a quick copy and paste into a desktop or online tool, waving Pleco OCR at it, whatever. And at anything other than the most elementary level, it's going to be as much distraction as assistance. You wouldn't put the meaning in brackets after every character, would you - you'd expect the student to know it, or learn it. Same for pronunciation.

[crazy-meiguoren]

After thinking over the OP, and my earlier support for showing pinyin for those with beginner level Chinese, I would like to qualify my pinyin support: What is the purpose of East Asia Student's website? If his website is for learning Mandarin, then pinyin has a vital function. It has helped me with my spoken Chinese a lot. If his intended audience is already expected to know Chinese, then that's a different story. There are websites that provide the needed reference material for giving the pinyin equivalent. A little cut-and-paste, and voila! Pinyin on a different tab.

[cababunga]

Instead of cluttering text with Pinyin, you can add pop-ups as described here. Won't help for printed articles though. You can see how it works at http://chinesereadingpractice.com.

[Hugh]

Thanks a lot for the replies everybody, much appreciated . I think for literature (modern and classical I won't provide pinyin, but will do for poetry, individual vocab items and example sentences.

@jbradfor

If you mean "麦岛联通营业厅", for example, then no, I see no need to add pinyin.

That content isn't typical at all - I agree that pinyin would be redundant there. What I'm talking about here is "educational" content - translations, explanations etc.

[dd18]

When reading Chinese, I prefer to see characters only. It helps me focus more on what I'm reading and prevents me from glancing too often at pinyin.

If I'm really stuck, I'm happy to use the Perapera-kun firefox extension to see the character's meaning I suppose using that addon also gives the website developers a break since they don't have to add pinyin.