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Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by MagnumOpus on Friday April 07, 2017 @06:42PM (#14064029)
> Pinyin Chinese is an international standard

A national standard, at best (in the PRC). In Taiwan, Zhuyin (Bopomofo) is universal, taught in schools and found on laptop keyboards, and romanisations are mostly following Wade-Giles rules. In Hongkong, Eitel romanisation is used even though their new commie overlords are forcing pinyin and yale canto down their kids' throats.

Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by lstyls on Friday April 07, 2017 @07:14PM (#14064164)
ISO and United Nations adoption don't qualify Pinyin as an international standard?

Using Taiwan as an example isn't really relevant given that it's majority Cantonese speaking, and Cantonese is a completely different spoken language than Mandarin.

Edit: I'm a clown. I was confusing traditional Chinese with Cantonese. Not the same thing.

Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by gommm on Friday April 07, 2017 @08:11PM (#14064444)
Hong Kong is majority Cantonese speaking. Taiwan is not, it's Mandarin (and to a lesser extent Hokkien and Hakka but most young people prefer to speak Mandarin).
Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by lstyls on Friday April 07, 2017 @08:18PM (#14064472)
You're right, edited my original comment to correct. Thanks.
Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by dnautics on Friday April 07, 2017 @08:02PM (#14064415)
Are you sure Taiwan is mostly cantonese?
Re:Bad Character: If Chinese Were Phonetic by lstyls on Friday April 07, 2017 @08:07PM (#14064432)
You're right it's not. I was confusing it with traditional vs simplified Chinese. Thanks for the correction.