How Children Can Overcome the Difficulties of Learning Pinyin?

Overcoming the most difficult challenges when learning Chinese Pinyin – the 23 initials, 24 finals, and 16 whole syllables – is the key that opens the door to being able to fully learn the language.

1. Why is pinyin difficult?

1) For students used to writing in English, pinyin letters often cause confusion… after all, they look the same! However, the pronunciation of pinyin ranges from "slightly" to "vastly" different from English letter pronunciation, so when they first start learning Chinese, children have to work hard to control their initial reactions when they see a letter, and use the correct pronunciation instead!

2) Not only are pinyin pronunciations different from English letter pronunciations, but...

2. Recommendations for Children to Learn Pinyin

Both of these recommendations make use of animals, since animals are something that children tend to be drawn to, whether in imitation or simply because they’re interesting (and cute!) to look at.

1) Matching sounds with pictures
Combining pinyin sounds with visual cues can help children remember them. For example, showing a picture of a rooster crowing and miming the "o" pinyin sound, or showing a goose swimming and pointing out the word for "goose" is the same sounds as pinyin’s "e".

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