Heiyu Studio

To start learning Mandarin Chinese, the first step is understanding and mastering the phonetic sounds.

Pinyin is a Western-based phonetic system used in Mainland China to type characters and in most American education systems to teach pronunciation. Zhuyin is a character-based system used in Taiwan and many overseas Chinese communities. While Pinyin and Zhuyin are mostly one-to-one, there are a few sounds that don’t align perfectly.

For those trying to teach Zhuyin to your children, I highly recommend KidsEdu Studio. It incorporates writing, games, quizzes, and drawing in a way that is colorful, fun, and engaging. When I purchased it last year, it was only a few dollars, and my 4-year-old was able to learn Zhuyin in just one month!

However, I had a hard time finding a Pinyin-to-Zhuyin app for those trying to learn both systems at the same time and I noticed that KidsEdu Studio didn’t include combination vowels—just the 37 basic phonetic sounds. To fill that gap, I recorded my daughter’s voice for the audio and did some “vibe coding” to create this reference grid and tone quiz.

I made sure to incorporate the trickier combination vowels shown below into my learning tool, as these often cause the most confusion:

• ㄧㄡ (iu)
• ㄧㄣ (in)
• ㄧㄥ (ing)
• ㄨㄟ (ui)
• ㄨㄢ (uan)
• ㄨㄥ (ong)
• ㄩㄣ (ün)
• ㄩㄥ (iong)

I chose to exclude the following vowel combinations listed below for two reasons: (1) trying to record and engage a 5-year-old is a time-consuming as well as a “computer power struggle,” and (2) I felt these vowel combinations are more intuitive and easier to pick up:

• ㄧㄚia
• ㄧㄝie
• ㄧㄠiao
• ㄧㄢian
• ㄧㄤiang
• ㄨㄚua
• ㄨㄛuo
• ㄨㄞuai
• ㄨㄣun
• ㄨㄤuang
• ㄩㄝüe
• ㄩㄢüan

How to Use This Learning Tool

1. The Reference Grid: This provides all 37 basic phonetic sounds along with the 8 trickier combination vowels that don’t quite align between Pinyin and Zhuyin. You can toggle between the systems you want to learn: Zhuyin, Pinyin, or both.
2. The Quiz Challenge: This is the feature I loved most from KidsEdu Studio—it’s what finally helped me master Zhuyin! The tool calls out a sound, and you have to pick the correct answer. Just like the grid, you can choose to test yourself on Zhuyin, Pinyin, or both. Additionally, you can use the dropdown box to narrow your focus to all sounds, consonants, vowels, or just the combo vowels.

I hope you all enjoy it!