I have learned pinyin and zhuyin both, but found zhuyin to be the "superior" system. In pinyin the two vowel sounds ㄜ and ㄝ are written as "e", and both ㄨ(somet

I have learned pinyin and zhuyin both, but found zhuyin to be the "superior" system. In pinyin the two vowel sounds ㄜ and ㄝ are written as "e", and both ㄨ(sometimes) and ㄩ are written as "u". Furthermore, typing is faster in zhuyin—the longest syllable takes 3 keystrokes instead of 5. And on top of that, learning zhuyin helped my phonics since it forced me away from using English sounds as a starting point. Another small benefit was that when reading children's books with zhuyin, I generally only looked at it when needed, whereas with pinyin, my eyes would be drawn to the familiar roman characters even when I didn't need them to read a character. Despite my experience, I still believe claims that either pinyin or zhuyin is "superior" are pretty subjective. Taiwan has undeniably done better than the mainland in terms of literacy and computer literacy... but it's also had the benefit of a superior educational system and more open, wealthier society. At least for natives, either system is fine. Most foreigners could probably gain something from learning both (and IPA too, for that matter).