In China and elsewhere, everyone learning Chinese uses a romanized phonetic system called pin yin. It was developed in the late 1950's, and is used to teach Chinese school children and foreign learners the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. It has since been adopted as the international standard. When my son started Chinese school 7 years ago, he actually learned a phonetic system called bopomofo. Bopomofo is still used in Taiwan, although Taiwan has adopted pin yin as the official romanization system beginning January 2009. We found a YouTube video that gives a good explanation/example of pin yin. Hopefully you'll find it useful. (She needs to clean her room!)
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