Pinyin
This is fairly easy for me - typing this blog, that is. Writing it is not always, but typing it is. So I was amazed to discover today that typing in China involves an added step and the use of our alphabet. (As with a number of gee-whiz revelations in this blog, apologies to those readers with experience in or ties to China for whom this is old news.)
Mike visits a 5th grade pottery class at the ZhaBei Experimental Primary School.
It is Wednesday, June 21 and we were on a tour of the Shanghai ZhaBei Experimental Primary School, our first stop on day one in Shanghai .
As our fifth grade tour guide showed us around one of their computer labs, I noticed that the keyboards all resembled my own-in other words, with our alphabet. I asked if there were other keyboards specifically for Chinese, not really thinking about the impracticality of that for a language with vastly more characters than our 26.
"No, we write in Pinyin," my young guide explained. Simply put, someone typing a letter or email in Chinese is typing the transliterated word, such as, for example, Shanghai. The computer with the right software then converts that word with English letters to the proper Mandarin characters. The Chinese refer to the transliterated language with our alphabet as "Pinyin."
So everyone who types, or uses a computer keyboard in China is using our alphabet every time they write in Chinese - everyone. Imagine if you had to use the basic building blocks of an entirely different linguistic system every time you wanted to write something in English. Click here to practice or learn Pinyin.
English class at ZhaBei Experimental Primary School
On another day in another city here, a curious student asked if all the signs are in two languages in America, as they are here. English on the keyboard, English on the signs everywhere; the impact on the ability to acquire that second language is significant, not to mention on one's worldview.
Tomorrow, we interview teaching candidates for the first time-finally. Check this space in 24 to 36 hours for an update.