Romanization of Chinese Characters
There have been many articles about this, but in todays Tapei Times they bring it up again. There are at least several different systems being used to romanize Chinese characters. Hanyu, Tongyong, and Wade-Giles for example, are some of these systems. Most foreigners see this mostly on street signs. The Chinese ä¸æ£è·¯ can be written as Chungcheng Road, Jungjeng Road, Zhong Zheng Road, or Jhongjheng Road. And to romanize it into Taiwanese, it is Diong-zing (as it is in Keelung). The universities teach the Hanyu pinyin system, but since that is used in the mainland, it is off limits for most of Taiwan (but used in Taipei city). Try using these as a non Chinese speaker with some Taiwanese, and you are bound to confuse them. Good luck figuring out how to say the street names.
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