Stories and experiences: An ESL teacher

The experiences as an ESL  teacher are wholly unique for me. The initial shock of being thrown into a classroom down to the weekly battle and resultant pain thereof are being captured in a chapter by chapter account of my life as an ESL teacher in Taiwan. This job was always an "on-the-fence" type of decision for me. I love music but I was less than confident in my general abilities so never dove in all the way. These stories show how conflicted I felt about all the experiences after taking the plunge into the world of ESL.

I am writing the stories in short ebooks in PDF format.

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ㄅㄆㄇㄈ or Bopomofo: Relevant Phonix

Ever since I began to learn bopomofo (the equivalent of the English phonetic alphabet) my pronunciation became much more accurate. With such a written system much more complex and involved than the English system it only was natural to learn an alphabet to help learn. Although I had to be diligent and dedicated to learn the new alphabet complete with new sounds associated with the letters it was well worth the time and effort. After all the letters of bopomofo are actually either derivatives of or can be found in Chinese characters. Therefore, while I learned bopomofo I was learning parts of characters for the written language.

ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄉㄊㄋㄌ
ㄍㄎㄏㄐㄑㄒㄓㄔㄕㄖ
ㄗㄘㄙㄧㄨㄩㄚㄛㄜㄝ
ㄞㄟㄠㄡㄢㄣㄤㄥㄦ

ˇ ˋ ˊ ˙

This is the complete alphabet of bopomofo and of course one must also add all the tones to this. （Five tones including the light tone.) To the untrained eye these look rather like child's musings (at least to the Westerner's Romanized brain). But once one learns this system Chinese characters begin to make more sense.

I will not attempt associate the sounds with English letters since that would negate the whole purpose of learning the new alphabet in order to free one's mind from the English pronunciation of letters. There are some very nice websites that have native speakers for each letter. Therefore, just as a baby learns by rote so we as adults can also learn by rote.

http://www.mdnkids.com/BoPoMo/

This is an excellent site that pronounces the letters as you click on them. Only letter at a time is pronounced and only in the first tone. I used this site to help know native pronunciation without falling back into the English way. It's important to learn how to shape the mouth and move the tongue so as to get the pronunciation like that of the native.

While it is still not as easy to recognize this system as it is the English alphabet, I do believe my pronunciation is better because I learned by rote. Rather than confuse a foreign language system with my mother tongue it has benefitted me well to do without the association with the English alphabet.

ㄅㄆㄇㄈ or Bopomofo

Learning Chinese in Taiwan is made easier....The system used to train kids how to read is the equivalent to the phonetic system in English ( more or less). Although it is nice for learning pronunciation in a Taiwanese way it is definitely not a means to the end of learning Chinese.

The picture is an example from a children's book. Notice the Chinese and then those more "simple" looking symbols on the right. Once you learn the phonetics then you can learn the Chinese on the left by association.
Granted one must practicing writing to quicken the mind's reconition just as you did in elementery school for your native tongue.

The interesting thing about bopomofo(Abc's) properly termed Zhuyin Fuhao(Alphabet)--is it's presence in the daily lives of the Taiwanese. It can be seen on billboards occasionally and on TV shows or even be used in daily speech. I guess the last would be nearly impossible to know unless you are certain that no such Chinese word exists. For example I have seen on TV in the subtitles the expression ㄟ or "A" (prounounced like the ketter A). Still not sure if it is nonexistent or just shorthand for that expression though.

When I can find a picture with billboards using bpomofo I will post it here.

In the end I think bopomofo is the one true way to learn the sounds of Chinese. And since it is a limited letter source of 36 letters why not kearn it? It easier than struggling through the pinyin system where one all too easier falls back to the ( in the English speaker's case) English pronunciations of those letters. 36 letters....easier than passing a driver's exam. Lol