you should probably learn Pinyin 
pronounced, of course, as "peen-eeen"
I was never crazy about that pin yin transliteration system, but you're right that he should learn it, since that's the way the chinese like to spell things.
Also, you might as well give up trying to say things right in chinese. It's very much like Klingon. If you don't learn it in the first few years of life, you'll never be able to say it right.
It is challenge to learn. But I'd like to think I got it down reasonably well.
I actually like pinyin more than Wade-Giles, but that might be because I was already used to the pronunciation before I learned pinyin.
