Chongfu Primary

[Icymummy]

Pls don't get me wrong. I'm NOT Anti Hanyu Pinyin or Phonics. Personally I's quite good at HYPY, it's just that kids are missing out some beauty of how a chinese character comes about. sometimes explaining how the characters come about like their strokes, it's easier for them to associate with & easier for them to remember how to write them.


I agree phonics can help them with pronunciation of words. I was also taught phonics in kindergarten (but last time it wasn't called phonics at all!) I feel that phonics should be a supplementary/additional during kindergarten. But PAP used it as their English lesson! So my kid can't form a proper sentence then!

Computer is a big part of our life now. Sooner or later everyone in school will be using thinkpad /ipad.

I think I'm super old school coz my parents (in their 70s & 80s). I'm still communicating with my pen pals via letters.LOL! I hope I wouldn't miss the times when my child comes running to me and asking me words he doesn't know how to read/pronounce in his story books. Then we can both sit down and read together at night in midst of our busy schedule.

The best thing is a bit of everything. Just like learning english. A bit of phonics, a bit of vocabulary, a bit of adjectives,a bit of grammer ,etc = English.

[babycutie71]

Imp75:

HYPY is confusing me and I don't seem to be able to understand the technicalities behind HYPY to explain them properly to my gal, ie why grandpa ye ye (the second ye does not have the notation) and why b p m f (like why \"b\" cannot form into \"be\") there isn't an explanation in the textbook and I wonder if there are any good self-help HYPY books?

爷爷- Only one notation at the front word because both are of same sound.

bpmf, dtln are 声调, and are used in front of 韵母.

韵母 comprises of ao, iao, an, ang, uan, uan, ou, ui...... etc.

[babycutie71]

Sorry, bpmf, dtln should be 声母. 声调are the 4 sounds.


Also there are J, Q, X, S, SH, Z, ZH,… I need to find out what these are. I think these are also 声母


Usually a Chinese words comprises of one 声母 & one 韵母 in hypy.


For eg. 睡觉 Sh + ui & J + iao
| | | |
| | | |
声母 韵母 声母 韵母


I hope above is not too chim for you, IMP75.

[Imp75]

hi babycutie


Thanks for this, I understand the "sheng mu" and "yun mu" cos they are like consonants and vowels in phonics, but hard for me to explain to my gal why "b" cannot blend with e to form "be" whereas "b" can blend with "a", "i" and "u" and "yu"). Do we need to learn by memorising the hypy rules? Is there not a better way?

[babycutie71]

Imp75:

hi babycutie


Thanks for this, I understand the \"sheng mu\" and \"yun mu\" cos they are like consonants and vowels in phonics, but hard for me to explain to my gal why \"b\" cannot blend with e to form \"be\" whereas \"b\" can blend with \"a\", \"i\" and \"u\" and \"yu\"). Do we need to learn by memorising the hypy rules? Is there not a better way?

a = ah o = or e = 鹅 i = 衣 u = 乌 ü = 鱼


B cannot blend with \"e\" because in Chinese there isn't a word that is read as Be (burr).

[babycutie71]

The only way is one must fully know all the sheng mu & yun mu in order to understand.


I search the web to find out more. Bel attended Berries and she was given a booklet on all the sheng diao, sheng mu & yun mu. How about Tien Hsia? Is Rae given any notes on HYPY?


U know I ever went for a job interview that requires me to translate Mandarin in HYPY. I was given a short notes of about 50 words and the interviewer asked me to translate all into HYPY (without the sounds).

[babycutie71]

Today no spelling for loyal. Spelling is postpone to wed. And Mrs Teng did not turn up for Math.

[Imp75]

In Tien hsia they are still learning hypy as Tien hsia claimed that they follow the moe syllabus closely. I am not sure if at the end of all hypy module, they will get a booklet of summary

[babycutie71]

Belvia was given the booklet when she attended K2 in Berries.

Now she continued with P1 at Berries, so I used the same booklet to guide her.

[Imp75]

I have heard rave reviews about berries but unfortunately the centre is too far and inconvenient for me so chose Tien hsia. By the way, are the teachers from mainland china and do they have a slang that’s difficult to understand? Rae tine hsia teacher is super slangy and fierce, I am worried this might kill off any remaining interest in Chinese that the kids have