can anyone recommend an English to Taiwanese Mandarin translator with pinyin or bopomofo as well so I learn both the characters and its pronunciation?

submitted by

with Taiwanese Mandarin I mean 臺灣國語, also called 華語.

All I find online, given how relevant China is today is the simplified script and PRC vocabulary, not the vocabulary used in Taiwan.

Even translators advertised as offering Taiwanese Mandarin translate into Chinese Mandarin.

4
13

Log in to comment

Hot Top New Old

That’s interesting because I usually have the opposite problem.

The more complex characters are generally called “Traditional Chinese” in English if that helps

 reply
5

Pleco is the dictionary app I use. It does a good job translating phrases I type in and supports a variety of input methods. It has traditional Chinese characters as an option and offers the zhuyin(bopomofo) display as an option too.

 reply
3

You wouldn’t be using pinyin for this.

Pinyin is specifically tailored for the Beijing dialect (which is now what you call mandarin) back in the 1950s. Other dialects or regional variants do not translate well into pinyin.

For example, Shanghainese and all Wu-style dialects have 5 tones instead of 4. If you’re using Pinyin you’re using the Beijing pronunciation.

 reply
1

There are websites that can swap between simplified and traditional Chinese characters

in my experience learning characters I needed to learn how to write them, starting from basic strokes - there are some good videos on youtube, you have to be patient, this takes a long time

for traditional characters and Taiwan dialect you’d want to learn bopomofo and not pinyin, for the reasons other people raised. From what I have seen bopomofo would also help learning the basic strokes and some radicals

i found a podcast called Dimsum Pinyin really really helpful for training my ears to tones, and pinyin in general, but there are likely better resources from ROC. There’s probably a lot out of ROC, if you look for ‘comprehensible input’ videos itll help.

hanping dictionary app and pleco dictionary were really helpful when i started, they both have paid features showing stroke order for characters

Ive seen people say you dont need to learn hanzi, but it’s not only fun, it’s really helped me remember words. If I hear a phrase and can identify the characters, it’s much easier to remember what it means. the character for cat, 猫 mao, is a radical for dog 犭quan*, grass 艹 *cao*, and field 田 *tian

anyway, rambling while i procrastinate, good luck

 reply
1
Insert image