Why do Chinese names and terms look different in my reading from in the Coursepack?
Chinese is “transcribed” into the Latin alphabet in a variety of ways — all of them bad! Our course uses the pinyin system (explained on p. 7 of the Coursepack); about half of published books use Wade-Giles, an insane system (for example, the sound of “r” is represented by the letter “j”). I’ve added a Wade-Giles chart to help you decode the changes. Don’t worry too much about this when you write — try to use pinyin as much as possible, and if we see transcription problems in your web pages when you turn them in as drafts, we’ll try to correct them for you.
