Go to xinhua bookstore and pick up one of the books written by Joel Belassen and Zhang Peng Peng (might be incorrect regarding the author’s names), you might progress faster than you’d think.

Hello John
Ever heard the term "in denial?" hahaha. I hope after I have yomped miles to this book shop, I don't develop a conviction that I have progressed more than I have, on account of them offering 'buy a book and get a bag of snort for free' hahaha. But thank you.

Hello John. This is fun actually. I regard it as a bit of banter, in between making points on the forum which we believe in, am I right.

I am trying my best to learn, but I am a bit older and slower than you probably. I know you have had a bellyful of pinyin from me-so what about a bit of the old hanzi-and I'll be glad of your input where I have made a mistake. Right ..phew.. I will attemp他 to translate what you wrote below into proper Chinese..here goes..wish me luck...

What is cringeworthy is the fact that offender is showing off very basic phrases... incorrectly. He really does sound like [edited]
My Chinese isn’t perfect, but I know that learning it is something that has to be taken seriously

让人不可思议的事情是有些人很喜欢炫耀一些最基本的词语，但是用法不对。这些词语往往是很部恰当的。 我的中文不是完美的。 但是我知道学� 一门语言应该认真对待。

Hey John, I don't know if you may have access to some resources that I am looking for, but I was wondering if you could point the way for me to some books that introduce the more traditional style of Chinese pinyin as interpreted by the West. Western scholars who wrote about, did research, and contributed to the development of China history used what was called I think the Roman alphabet of spelling out phonetic Mandarin or whatever dialect the scholars were working off of during their time. For example instead of saying Cai or Cao it would be spelled as T'sai and Tsao. Instead of saying Kong Zi it would be Kung Si. Of course interactions with Chinese in modern history predominantly came from the Guangdong and Fujian areas initially but at the same time I think for folks who have trouble with pinyin this can be a good stopgap.

I do not understand why some posters are against the use of Pinyin on this board; I am strongly in favour of it although I can type and read Chinese characters as well.

Turnoi, it's not that I or other posters are against the usage of pinyin, it's the person who is using it they way he is that me and other posters have a problem with. Anything that is spoken no matter how virtuous it sounds can be used in abused. As long as it has form it can also become deformed, from what I have learned. For people who don't know anything about the Chinese language and have nothing better to do than to flaunt their very very limited knowledge to folks like me and you who know it fluently and come off as being supposedly knowing better, that should be taken as an insult.

Hello Dragonised
No, I shouldn't think you would mind the use of pinyin, seeing it was you who got the ball rolling with its use on this forum.

I don't see how 'wo shi dui de hai shi wo shi dui de?' could be misunderstood or become deformed, especially when it has been made quite clear that it replaced a certain English rhetorical question-and more especially when you compare it with this bit of syntax:-

Turnoi, it's not that I or other posters are against the usage of pinyin, it's the person who is using it they way he is that me and other posters have a problem with