Bopomofo

I, Floppy, may find interest in different kind of things other people may not understand. I aknowledge that and think it is not a bad thing. And as I can never know what will catch my eyes next I try to stay open minded and willing to try new things.


One of my biggest discovery here in Taiwan (by biggest I mean the most interesting for me so far^^) was their way of typing Chinese on a digital device.
I was texting with a Taiwanese friend on LINE (the most popular chatting app in Taiwan) and he asked me how I was typing Chinese...
I didn't understand his question at first because back in France I learned how to type Chinese using the English alphabet called Pinyin. So I replied "I use pinyin like everyone does, right?". And then my life has changed, it seemed a whole new world appearing in front of me: Taiwanese people have their own alphabet! It is commonly called "BoPoMoFo" (as the first 4 letters are B, P, M and F) but the Chinese term will be 注音符號 [zhuyin fuhao] which means "phonetic symbols".

Taiwanese keyboard on my tab bought in Taiwan

"Zhuyin remains the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in elementary school in Taiwan. It is also one of the most popular ways to enter Chinese characters into computers and to look up characters in a dictionary in Taiwan."
This days I am watching for the 4th time my favourite tv serie "Autumn's concerto". One of the characters is a 5 year-old child, and I had never payed attention to his writings on his drawings! All in bopomofo! How come I never payed attention to that? I was maybe focused on something or someone else.. ahah

So one day as I was feeling bored doing my homeworks and needed to do something else in order not to fall asleep on my notebook I suddenly decided to learn bopomofo so that I can type like a true Taiwanese! I downloaded an app called "learn bopomofo!", a zhuyin keyboard on my phone and after a week I would only use bopomofo to type in Chinese. It was that easy, really!

Still in my favourite tv show, the people in the countryside would say so many times something similar to "wogalikong" translated in English "let me tell you". I don't know why this sentence would always catch my attention and I like the way it sounds. So one day I finally asked a Taiwanese friend about it, what was the real pronounciation and how come I never came accross something similar in Chinese class? After a moment of hesitation as he wasn't expecting that he found the answer: this is Taiwanese language! So now I know how to say something in Taiwanese and I want to know more!! Ahahah another language to add to my list of languages I want to learn ><" maybe when I will be an old grandma I will be able to speak all sort of languages just for fun. x)

I also found myself watching a whole movie in Taiwanese language subbed in Chinese in the listening practice classroom in Shida. I had no idea it was in Taiwanese but I just loved it! Everytime I'd go studying there I would spent at least 10 minutes watching the movie little by little. At home I found myself huming a song and realized it was from the movie... I was so into it. Ahah
The story is about Buddha and a legend about the divinity of the fishmen who they would ask before going to the see if the conditions are good or if there is a storm coming.
I found it on Youtube if you want to see, it is just a shame it is not the same voices for all the characters and I like the ones I watched at university better... but I hope you will like it, if anyone decides to have a look. ^^

Keep your mind wide open and find your true interests in life! That's how we keep going, evolving and learning. I am also trying to do my best~

Thank you for reading my blog.

Floppy