Chinese bopomofo Question -got advice?

Actually it's Totally the SAME !

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all Chinese people was studies the "Traditional Chinese"
and "Zhu Yin" (bopomofo) before!

then later China Government want to make Chinese language more easy to learn, and also for promote it globally & easily acceptable by the foreigners.

1. they transfer the Written Form of the Chinese Character to more easier, started from 1955 to June of 1986 China government invented several version of Chinese word and trial of using it, and called it "Simplified Chinese"; the older one called "Traditional Chinese"

but not all "Traditional Chinese" are transform into "Simplified Chinese", only for those are Hard to write Chinese Characters.

it means there are still remaining a lot of "Traditional Chinese" (60%+) in the so-called "Simplified Chinese"

2. transform the written symbol of the "Zhu Yin" to the alphabet letter and called it "PinYin".

but aside from the Written Form (change from "Symbols" to "Alphabets"), all syllables, the usage.... are totally still remaining the SAME !

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so, for a pure Chinese like me, it's Nothing different between "Zhu Yin" & "PinYin", or "Traditional Chinese" & "Simplified Chinese" !

because i know both of them and its history that where it really from !

only for those New Generation Chinese who only learn "Simplified Chinese" & "PinYin" at their school in China now, and the Foreigners will think the "Traditional Chinese" & "Zhu Yin" are Different things.

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SO, please don't be Confusing for those matter ! it's totally the SAME thing.

and i will suggest you just study "PinYin" ; they are the same, and its more easily for you to use "alphabets" than to memories those "symbols"

and the "Simplified Chinese" may also easier for you to learn than "Traditional Chinese".

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for your reference :

1.> CHINESE (中文) (Zhōngwén) - is a language with many dialects.

- it can be written in form of Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese
- but it can spoke or pronounce in many " Dialects " !

2.> Chinese Dialects - " Mandarin " (官) (Guan) is the Official one.

- it was a local dialect in Northern China (include Beijing -Capital of China); so it also called "北方話" (Běifānghuà) (Northern dialect) or "北京話" (Běijinghuà) (Beijing dialect).

- and later, it spoken across most of northern and south-western China with majority China peoples, then became the "Official Chinese Dialect" that announce by China government.

- and now also known as 汉语/漢語 (Hànyǔ); 华语/華語 (Huáyǔ); 國語/国语 (guoˊ yuˇ ) or 普通話/普通话 (puˇ tong hua)

- and out of many other China dialects.
it 1. (Mandarin "官") together with 2. "Yue" (粵) (Cantonese) , 3. "Man" (閩) (also known as Minnan, Amoy, Hokkien, Fujian, TAIWANESE...) 4. "Wu" (吳) (Shanghainese), 5. "Hakka" (客家), 6. "xiang" (湘) & 7. "Gan" (贛)...

are declared by China Government and consider as the " 7 Major Chinese Dialects " in China, which used by a large amount of Chinese people within China and Overseas!

3.> Form of Written :

" Traditional Chinese "

- which was totally used in mainland China before, and still remaining a lot in Simplified Chinese,

- now is still usually used in HongKong, China; Macao, China; Taiwan; Philippines.....

" Simplified Chinese "
( which is usually used in Mainland China, Singapore.... )

- the mainland China start to invent and try of using "Simplified Chinese" in 1955, is for the reason of more easier to learn and for promote Chinese globally;

- there are several version of "Simplified Chinese" announce by China government and had been cancelled later on ( example: the version announce by mainland China at Dec. 20, 1977 had been cancelled after eight year of trial of usage on jun. 24, 1986; and the newest announcement of "Simplified Chinese" was on oct. 10, 1986 )

and after those trial and error, the latest announcement of "Simplified Chinese" by China government was on October 1986, only for around 23 years; so the generation as old as grandparents was also learned "Traditional Chinese" in their school time at China before. the "Traditional Chinese" is the one had been used for longer time, and still remaining a lot in "Simplified Chinese".

because not all "Traditional Chinese" are convert or have "Simplified Chinese" version, only those are hard to write, and mainland China Government are now officially use "Simplified Chinese", but not restricted for using "Traditional Chinese" !

- that's the reason why HongKong & Macao are already part of China, and they are still using Traditional Chinese on their official document, newspaper, and on TV !

and also still using by a lot of oversea chinese. and used also at their chinese newspaper. ex. Philippines......

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There are literally hundreds of ways to transcribe Hanzi phonetically.... Pinyin and Zhuyin both have their shortcomings... and that really can't be helped with a language that has no phonetic system.

You can learn either (or both) but the best way is to listen to spoken Chinese as much as possible and then you'll get to notice the inconsistencies and how to get passed them.

Does this make any sense?

Learning bopomofo (zhuyinfuhao 注音符号) isn't going to help you. It's only used on Taiwan, and only for young children learing Chinese. In the long run, Pinyin will be much more useful.

http://www.cucas.edu.cn/
I will suggest you to apply through CUCAS, CUCAS is a professional online platform for international students to apply for Chinese universities, it has a strong relationship with over 300 universities in China. They do not ask for any fee, the application fee is collect by them but only on behalf of the university, CUCAS also hold social activities for international students so they will not get bored, they always try to think as a foreigner and help international students to solve their problems. Very nice.

pinyin is better than zhuyin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuyin