Anyone, who is planning to learn Chinese in China or overseas, should be very grateful for the current pinyin system that is in use.
但凡要在中国或海外学中文的，都得感谢现行在用的拼音体系。
Romanisation of the Chinese language began back in the 1600s through the Jesuit missionaries but the works were solely for a western audience.
汉语罗马化要追溯到17世纪的耶稣传教士，但其著作仅仅面对西方受众。
It is common to come across the Wade-Giles pinyin system in history text books or hearing people talk about China who haven’t learned modern pinyin.
经常在历史教科书看见威妥玛式拼音法，未学过现代拼音者谈论中国时也会论及。
Compared to the logic of the modern system of pinyin there are clear flaws. Mao Zedong was written as Mao Tse-tung. The ‘tung’ phonetic for 东 is not accurate standard pronunciation and so the Wade-Giles system would always be lacking.
较之现代拼音体系，威妥玛式拼音法有明显缺陷。Mao Zedong（毛泽东）写出来是Mao Tse-tung，而用tung表示“东”的发音并非准确的标准发音。因而威妥玛式拼音法总是有所欠缺。
Modern hanyu pinyin was a project pushed by the Communist Party in 1950. Led by Zhou Youguang, the team’s aim was to create an all-encompassing phonetic system without the inaccuracies of previous systems.
现代汉语拼音是共产党1950年推进的项目。 由周有光引领，团队旨在创造全面的拼音体系，剔除之前体系不准确的标音。
This seemingly exhaustive list provides the all the phonetic possibilities in the language. The tones are signified by markers, known as diacritics, above the key syllable of the final.
这一体系几乎穷尽了中文里所有可能的语音。音调由标记标出来，即人们所知的变音符号，标在韵母的关键音节上。
Pinyin can be important for Chinese adults as well as foreigners and schoolchildren as it reminds people of the standard pronunciation opposed to their local dialect.
拼音对于外国人和在校学生重要，对于中国成年人一样重要，因为拼音提醒人们注意有别于其当地方言的标准的发音。
It’s possible, and realistic, that in the near future school children all over the world will be learning Chinese as part of their syllabus.
不久的将来，很有可能世界各地的在校学生会学习中文，汉语成为其课程大纲的一部分。
（来源：沪江英语）
