Anyone, who is planning to learn Chinese in China or overseas, should be very grateful for the current pinyin system that is in use.

但凡要在*或海外學(xué)中文的，都得感謝現行在用的拼音體系。

Romanisation of the Chinese language began back in the 1600s through the Jesuit missionaries but the works were solely for a western audience.

漢語(yǔ)羅馬化要追溯到17世紀的耶穌傳教士，但其著(zhù)作僅僅面對西方受眾。

It is common to come across the Wade-Giles pinyin system in history text books or hearing people talk about China who haven’t learned modern pinyin.

經(jīng)常在歷史教科書(shū)看見(jiàn)威妥瑪式拼音法，未學(xué)過(guò)現代拼音者談?wù)?時(shí)也會(huì )論及。

Compared to the logic of the modern system of pinyin there are clear flaws. Mao Zedong was written as Mao Tse-tung. The ‘tung’ phonetic for 東 is not accurate standard pronunciation and so the Wade-Giles system would always be lacking.

較之現代拼音體系，威妥瑪式拼音法有明顯缺陷。Mao Zedong（毛澤東）寫(xiě)出來(lái)是Mao Tse-tung，而用tung表示“東”的發(fā)音并非準確的標準發(fā)音。因而威妥瑪式拼音法總是有所欠缺。

Modern hanyu pinyin was a project pushed by the Communist Party in 1950. Led by Zhou Youguang, the team’s aim was to create an all-encompassing phonetic system without the inaccuracies of previous systems.

現代漢語(yǔ)拼音是共產(chǎn)黨1950年推進(jìn)的項目。 由周有光引領(lǐng)，團隊旨在創(chuàng )造全面的拼音體系，剔除之前體系不準確的標音。

This seemingly exhaustive list provides the all the phonetic possibilities in the language. The tones are signifiedby markers, known as diacritics, above the key syllable of the final.

這一體系幾乎窮盡了中文里所有可能的語(yǔ)音。音調由標記標出來(lái)，即人們所知的變音符號，標在韻母的關(guān)鍵音節上。

Pinyin can be important for Chinese adults as well as foreigners and schoolchildren as it reminds people of the standard pronunciation opposed to their local dialect.

拼音對于外國人和在校學(xué)生重要，對于*成年人一樣重要，因為拼音提醒人們注意有別于其當地方言的標準的發(fā)音。

It’s possible, and realistic, that in the near future school children all over the world will be learning Chinese as part of their syllabus.

不久的將來(lái)，很有可能世界各地的在校學(xué)生會(huì )學(xué)習中文，漢語(yǔ)成為其課程大綱的一部分。