Burt: Correct! Mandarin characters don't give us the sound of a word, so the Chinese invented pinyin to help their learners. They took the letters of the Roman alphabet, the same we use for ...

Students learn four different systems for writing Mandarin. In Kindergarten, they begin with a phonetic alphabet, called BoPoMoFo. As they grow comfortable with the individual sounds and tones, they ...

The threat of TikTok going dark in the US appears to have compelled some Americans to start learning Mandarin as they look to communicate on a rival Chinese app. Many Americans are joining ...