Introduction: Traditional Characters, Bopomofo, Tones

I. Purpose and Mission
My daughter is teacher Z. She is constantly helping me translate or improve my basic mandarin. As she has gotten older, she has become quite the personal tutor for me and creating a Vlog for people wanting to learn Mandarin is entirely her idea. I am just the one filming her and uploading these posts.

II. Traditional Characters

Here in Taiwan, people read and write using traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the mainland simplified form. This requires more time and devotion as the traditional characters have more strokes.  Both forms have their advantages and disadvantages.

Basically a Taiwanese person who grew up using traditional characters can read poetry and documents that's are thousands of years old, but that requires more time. They can also read simplified characters. Yet a main-lander can't as easily read traditional characters and would have to relearn them, so they cannot read the poetry or philosophies of their historical heritage.

This blog will focus entirely on traditional characters. If you have already learned the simplified form and want to learn the traditional characters, than I think Z's pace and materials would be an excellent way for you to build upon what you already know.

III. Bopomofo
Mandarin learners in Taiwan learn the correct pronunciation and characters by first learning a phonetic alphabet known as Bopomofo.  This name derives from the first 4 syllables of this "alphabet". Teacher Z will not focus so much on teaching these although she will go through some children's books that are organized around Bopomofo. It is useful for reading basic, children's books, but not necessary for speaking conversational Mandarin. It is however extremely useful to know when you need to type on the computer or smart phone. Even with my cave woman Mandarin I can type in Bopomofo and find the character I am looking for (then ask Z if I got the right one.)

The 4 Tones in Mandarin

IV. The Tones
Mandarin has 4 tones. Z doesn't go into teaching the different tones, but if you notice her books you see how above the Bopomo are lines. If there is no line, its the first tone, which is flat, second tone rises, third tone goes down then up and the fourth tone is down. The video below is a good explanation: