Chinese Pin Yin is a system of writing that uses Roman Characters, thereby greatly simplifying the official Chinese written language of archaic characters. But as it is not the official standard in China, its uses are mainly limited to inputting text on digital devices, however following Pin Yin pronunciation systems is a real boon for a learner of Chinese.
Without Pin Yin, a new learner would be forced to greatly add to their learning load by having to learn and decipher Chinese characters in order to practice Chinese pronunciation. However, using a product like Rocket Chinese ensures good pronunciation based on both sets of characters, in tandem with our pronunciation trainer.
For the student of Chinese, the greatest drawback is that few people over the age of 35 can read Roman characters on the Chinese mainland, so as a writing alternative for those coming to China for language experience, it presents real problems. Yet, I don't recommend that the student learns Chinese characters, they are surely a tedious thing to learn and the time would be much better spent on raising your level of spoken Chinese.
Whilst the Roman characters are obvious to the Western student, of course the sounds differ, and to learn Pin Yin sounds is a relatively easy thing to do. Our trainer only has to be listened to, and repeated as the little program plays, for 6 minutes every day. Within a couple of months those few minutes a day will translate into a very useful pronunciation level of Chinese. Yes, learning those sounds is actually that easy.
Go ahead and take this opportunity right now to learn about all the features in Rocket Chinese at Rocket Chinese Reviewed, and be sure to take notice of the bonus Chinese pronunciation Pin Yin sounds trainer.