Recollecting Chinese words through mobile phones

I have not been writing Chinese for many years. This results in my not being able to write out the words correctly. Hence I am now trying to relearn the strokes so that I can remember them. Sometimes I need to write the Chinese equivalent of the English or Malay words to my lower form students especially those from Form 1.

I find that I can use my mobile phone to help me recall the words. Luckily I know pinyin - a system of denoting Chinese words by sound. This can also be used to key in to produce the Chinese words displayed on the screen of my mobile phone. In fact, it helps me pronounce the Chinese words correctly, particularly those words with 's' or 'sh' sound, 'c' or 'ch' sound and 'z' or 'zh' sound.

In Malaysia I find that people don't bother to pronounce Mandarin accurately. They take the easy way out, that is pronouncing all 's' and 'sh' words with 's' sound only. For example, "Wo3 shi4 xue2 sheng1' [I am a student.] is simply pronounced as 'Wo3 si4 xue2 seng1.'

Make use of your mobile phone to learn Mandarin. It is worth the effort.