I gotta agree with what you're generally saying. I'm not as familiar with phonetics, but I've found i learning Chinese that one of the most useful things to kee

I gotta agree with what you're generally saying. I'm not as familiar with phonetics, but I've found i learning Chinese that one of the most useful things to keep in mind when reading pinyin is to not take the letters literally and to focus on how native people are actually saying things. Like in the examples you give, the pinyin can lure you into bad habits