To make it easier to study Mandarin Chinese, the People’s Republic of China under Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976) devised an excellent system of writing down the sounds using the letters of the roman alphabet. Initiated in 1958, this phonetic system of character transcription is known as Hanyu pinyin.

The pinyin system of character romanization forms the basis for effective Mandarin study and is employed in the Chinese schooling system with tremendous success. In the initial stages of studying Chinese, it is essential that all students are taught pinyin i.e. the Chinese phonetic alphabet. The key to learning to speak Mandarin Chinese is to master the pinyin pronunciation of words, thus forming the basis for sentence construction, and in turn dialogue and conversation.

It is our firm belief that pinyin is the key to unlocking the Mandarin Chinese language and by using this approach our students are guaranteed success!