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A Fun Song to Start Learning the New Pinyin Sequence

I was looking for a song in relation to the BoPoMoFo. In my case, I'm prone to calling Pinyin "BoPoMoFo" until today (read here). It's because Pinyin basically serves the same purpose as Zhuyin--teaching one how to read Chinese. I'd like to say that I got too comfortable with this old sequence:


I may hate memorizing Zhuyin but I like treating Pinyin in the same sequence. The new table which uses the 23 initials-24 finals method (read here) can be confusing. Some old-timers may have an easier time transliterating the Zhuyin into Pinyin. However, I still find the new sequence confusing. I may no longer remember Zhuyin (and I kept failing at it and kept memorizing sentences without understanding) but I can remember Pinyin. Except my memorization of the Pinyin was in the BoPoMoFo sequence. 

With more than a billion Chinese speakers worldwide--can we keep using the old books to teach Mandarin? That's why I wrote about why the old Chinese textbooks can't be used in the language centers. I may be no geopolitical expert but I feel that Taiwanese politician Yeh Yi Jin's proposal may be for the best (read why here).

As I like to say it, there's always the need for accessibility. Learning a new language is hard but having the right tools can make it a fun task. There are hard tasks that can be fun like figuring out creative ways to make students like mathematics, trying to make a good landscape, and writing a good essay. Learning the Chinese language can be hard but it can also be fun. 

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