台灣 · Before you go
Learn to read zhuyin before you land
A free seven-day program for anyone moving to Taiwan to study, work or live. Ten to fifteen minutes a day, around 80 minutes in total, and by the end you can read all 37 symbols, hear the difference between the sounds that matter most, and type on a Taiwanese keyboard. No account and no signup: your progress is kept in this browser.
Why do this before you arrive
Zhuyin is the first thing you will meet in a Taiwanese classroom and the last thing most people prepare for. Language centers teach in it, textbooks print it beside new characters, and every keyboard in the country uses it. Arriving already able to read it means the first weeks are spent on Mandarin rather than on the notation Mandarin is taught through.
It is also the rare part of learning Mandarin with an end. Thirty-seven symbols and five tones is a week of short sessions, not a year.
- What zhuyin is, and why Taiwan runs on itThe system, why it exists, and your first four symbols.about 10 minutes
- Tongue-tip and throat soundsSeven more initials, all of them close to sounds you already make.about 10 minutes
- The sibilants, and the contrast that matters mostTen initials, including the three-way distinction most learners never fix.about 12 minutes
- Medials and simple finalsThe vowels, and the three symbols that sit in the middle of a syllable.about 10 minutes
- Compound and nasal finalsThe last nine symbols. After today you have all 37.about 10 minutes
- Tones, and reading a whole syllableThe five tones, how zhuyin marks them, and putting a syllable together.about 12 minutes
- Typing, and the final testThe keyboard every device in Taiwan uses, then ten questions to finish.about 15 minutes
What this is, and what it is not
These seven pages explain the system and let you hear it. They are not a substitute for practice, and they do not try to be: reading about a sound four times is not the same as being drilled on it forty. Each day ends by pointing at the part of the app that drills what you just read.
Start today, and read zhuyin by the time you fly
Day one takes ten minutes and needs nothing but this page. The app is free too, and is where the symbols move from recognized to automatic.
Teaching a class heading to Taiwan, or running a pre-departure program? This is free to hand out and there is nothing to sign up for. More for teachers and schools.