Guides
Longer pieces on the parts of bopomofo that need more than a chart: how it stacks up against pinyin, how to learn it in an afternoon, where the symbols came from, and how to type with them.
Zhuyin vs pinyin: which should you actually learn?
A straight comparison of zhuyin (bopomofo) and pinyin: what each is good at, where pinyin misleads English speakers, and which one is right for your goals.
8 min read
Learn bopomofo in two hours
A practical two-hour plan for learning all 37 zhuyin symbols and the 5 tones, with the order to learn them in and the mistakes that cost the most time.
10 min read
Where the 37 bopomofo symbols came from
Every zhuyin symbol was cut down from a real Chinese character chosen for its sound. Here is the source character behind each of the 37, and the one exception.
9 min read
How to type Chinese with a zhuyin keyboard
How the Taiwanese zhuyin keyboard is laid out, how to turn it on in iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, and how to get fast at it.
7 min read
Zhuyin for foreign parents: reading your child’s homework in Taiwan
A practical guide for foreign parents in Taiwan who never learned zhuyin. How to read the symbols above your child’s textbook, what homework terms like 聽寫 and 生字 mean, and a weekend plan to catch up.
9 min read
Why does Taiwan still use zhuyin instead of pinyin?
Zhuyin predates pinyin by four decades and is built into a century of Taiwanese textbooks, dictionaries and keyboards. The actual history behind why Taiwan never switched.
8 min read
Zhuyin vs kana: a head start for Japanese speakers learning Mandarin
Zhuyin and kana were built on the same design principle, a thousand years apart. If you already read kana, zhuyin is not a new idea to learn, only 37 new shapes.
8 min read