I always feel bad when I visit Taiwan. Even with various Chinese schools and taking college level Chinese, I can’t really read when I go there. I might be able to pick up a few words but overall… I am illiterate. Given that I was borned in Taiwan, I feel double sad.
My wife is from Taiwan and her English is better than my Mandarin. So while my conversation skills are “passable” my reading skill still sucks. I tried flash cards, some iPhone apps but they don’t seem to help too much. I might remember it a bit but then after “not” using it for a while, I will forget.
Yup… I can survive but it really sucks when I go to resturants and can’t read from the menu. My wife does the ordering, but sometimes I wish I can do it.
what are you? trying to make me feel bad or something? when that happens to me i slip into my taiwanese gangster persona and throw the menu on the floor and just speak in taiwanese and ask "hey what do you think I should get around here ?? !! “” Always works.
“eh twah eh- chia she be jiah summay ka ho? " (hey bossman, whats to eat here thats best?” )
p.s. dont actually throw the menu on the floor though, you may get knifed ! Just put it down on the table gently. Remember, only ACT like a gangster not be a real one.
Since you’ve got the spoken language down for the most part, in my mind there’s no question reading is the path to… well being able to read haha. You have the advantage of already knowing what most of the words on the page mean, so it’s just a matter of looking up the characters you don’t know and taking in as much material as possible. I personally find writing practice helps recognition faster than anything, so as part of my reading I’ll mark down characters I didn’t recognize and practice writing them. A program like Skritter.com is great for this, since it keeps them organized for you and you can practice them over a long period of time. But the important part is you just keep reading. No shortcut unfortunately to being able to read Chinese, which is cool in a way because it means those that can paid their dues.
Try really easy books. I mean embarassingly easy, like books for small children. If you speak well, you could get someone who reads to record the stories for you and listen to them while following along. Read the same thing repeatedly, read it to people, your dog, your backpack, whatever.
When you to identify some of the characters, look for clues to heop you remember them. Make up stories, use the real radicals, whateverl But the strongest tool you have at your disposal is fluency in Mandarin speech. That is how you SHOULD learn to read – learning to recognize language you already have in your head.
Oh I tried reading a kid’s book with bopomo to my children before bedtime and boy, I think I would turn them off reading Chinese forever. I guess I will try again but I would like them to go to sleep within 10 minutes instead of an hour later.
I had a roommate who sometimes wished she could speak and read English. She had a roommate who was determined to learn Mandarin. Guess which one’s goal was actually reached?
The point, and my biggest piece of advice, is this: Start by deciding whether or not this is a goal that you are going to achieve, that you are determined to devote the effort and time to. How to go about it is secondary IMHO.
I’ve tried everything and finally found something that really works. Buy a cheap Bo Po Ma Fa game program or typing tutor. Learn the sounds (which you already know).
Pop into a local elementary school and hit the teacher up for the first grade reading text and workbook. For you, get a copy of the civics/life-skills book and math book too. The math book has word problems.
The reading text book will have the zuying phonic by almost every word. It teaches you basic punctuation. Show you how to tell the difference between similar sounding words and similar looking words. The big thing is attitude. If you are fascinated by silly things like me… you will notice all kinds of treasures.
You’ll notice that each interjection will have a little mouth in front of a common word. You’ll notice that sets of words that have to do with time will have a little moon located within the character.
My method is brute force. I spend my mornings at McDonald’s with a Laptop, Ms Word, Excel, Dr. Eye and a Besta Electronic Dictionary.
I touch type the Chinese lesson and or story. Because pronunciation is problem for me, I use three Zuying Fonts that help me remember when a word is pronounced differently and I drop each new phrase or word into Excel to create flash cards or study sheets. After I type in the story, I translate it into English and highlighting in red troublesome words to discuss with my friends at a later time.
A word of advice: Try to get the Chinese version of Word. There is a really mean punctuation bar located on the bottom of your workspace. The Chinese punctuation is different and is not easily accessible in English Word.
Hey, do most people say only Bo Po Mo? Or the whole thing Bo Po Mo Fo? I go with just Bo Po Mo since it is shorter… like ABC (instead of ABCD).
I do have some of those children books, but soon I find I start looking at the zhuying instead of the actual words like a crutch. So it doesn’t really help me when I look at a menu.
The fact that menus have use creative vocabulary makes it hard too (e.g. “three cup chicken”). The thing that helped me during the last trip was the iPod touch… I was able to use a dictionary app and write out the characters to see what it means. It takes a long time to do each word though… and sometime individual words don’t make sense.
Hmm… everywhere I read has it “bo po mo fo”. Is it like slang for “Be pe me fe”? [/quote]
It’s not slang. Maoman is saying the way most native speakers pronounce it is ㄅㄜ ㄉㄜ ㄇㄜ ㄈㄜ not ㄅㄛ ㄆㄛ ㄇㄛ ㄈㄛ or ㄅㄡ ㄆㄡ ㄇㄡ ㄈㄡ (or, if you prefer IPA, /pɛ pʰɛ mɛ fɛ/ rather than /pɔ pʰɔ mɔ fɔ/ or /pɤʊ pʰɤʊ mɤʊ fɤʊ/). The pronunciation of bopomofo hasn’t changed, but the “English” spelling predates Hanyu Pinyin.
Here are my suggestions, basically get yourself into a Chinese environment.
1.Carry a electronic. translator with you.
2.try talk in Chinese whenever possible. Even when you are with your wife.
3.You can also read translated book that you already read in English. For example: Harry Potter.
4.Go on Chinese blogs, or turn your Facebook into Chinese, (If you have one)
國語日報（for children）reading a lot and speaking louder.
–湯…–soup
–麵…–noodles
↓
蛋花湯 Egg & vegetable soup
蛤蜊湯 Clams soup
麻醬麵 Sesame paste noodles
刀削麵 Sliced noodles
(I think you should made a card with picture.)[/quote]
I think that vocabulary like this is the most unimportant vocabulary available in a language. I really regret having learned all that stuff, because I will never need it again, when I am not in Taiwan. I should have used the time for learning the real language
Given that I was borned in Taiwan, I feel double sad. 
