To be able to type with completely new writing system, one needs to be able to recognise the sounds properly and to be able to associate them with corresponding letters.
In IL app we made this process straight forward and with Spaced Repetition algorithms added into process, learning Bopomofo can be easy, fast and efficient, it took me one week with this approach to learn it, doing it 15 or so minutes a day.
Of course if you wanna become really fast, it is going to take some practice, and best way to do that is while learning new vocabulary, typing in new words also increases rate of remembering them, so benefits are two fold, one learns to type faster with new writing system, while at the same time, learning new vocabulary. But let us not get to much ahead and start first with learning to associate basic Chinese sounds with corresponding Bopomofo letters.
For the start, you want to set your in app settings not to show any Bopomofo on first side, you should press play button that is located in red circle, bottom right and you will hear a sound, there after, you should enter corresponding letter on your Bopomofo Keyboard and press enter.
You can enter corresponding letter by long pressing it on the GBOARD keyboard (this is how it is done in Google GBOARD keyboard, please note that process can vary on different keyboards, and for now, I’ll presume you know how to do it in other keyboards, or you are using GBOARD). Press enter and you will be taken to feedback screen.
Here you can review how good you did and there after it, it is just rinse and repeat.
Please note that in the start, finding correct letter on the keyboard could be to hard of a task, in this case I recommend to set the settings to show the letter already on the first side, and even maybe set the Image of the keyboard on and run few times through the whole deck, just to get felling of it.
Please note, in order to learn Bopomofo, you are going to need to make an effort, and seeing corresponding letter on the screen already, is not an effort, but rather just following instructions. So after you become little familiar with Bopomofo, you are going to need to turn off seeing it on the first side, and push your your way through it, even if you are not sure which letter it is that you’ve heard, type in letter you think it was, even if answer was wrong, Spaced Repetition algorithm will make sure you practice more, wrongly answered letters, until you learn them.
And for the end, I’ll post few screenshots of the settings and how to get there, as it might be overwhelming in the start and we are dedicated to flatten the learning curve as much as possible so that you can focus on learning Chinese Language.
To aces the settings please press the three lines icon in the red circle.
To acces the settings for the Bopomofo deck, press on the Bopomofo in the red circle.
To acces the settings of the Bopomofo deck, please press on the settings cog icon in the red circle.
In the Bopomofo settings, you can set up which text or images will be shown on the first side, turn any of them on if you are having issues with finding corresponding letters to the sound you are hearing, or turn them off if you are already familiar with Bopomofo and you are set to grind your way through it and learn it.
In case you aren’t sure about sound you are hearing, you might try to change to the second recording (both recording one and two in red circle), it might help hearing the same sound from two different speakers, to get better felling of it.
Note:
The Images of Bopomofo keyboard in the app, were meant for me to learn how to Blind Type Bopomofo, if you are using Bluetooth Physical keyboard connected to your phone, you might do the same, and this was whole purpose of having those images in the App
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