Ren-min-bi what?

I just remember awhile back when I was reading the financial times paper and I always wonderd how the hell do you pronounce that word Renminbi or Yuan, the Chinese currency.  As Americans we look down on people when they pronounce our words wrong so I don’t want to float in that same ignorant boat.  So I took some time to investigate and here is what I found.  To this day I think about this every time I see either one of these words.

Renminbi – Pronounced Ren-Min-Bi – Ren – like hen(the animal) but ren – Min like minimized but just min – Bi like the letter B

Yuan – This one is not as simple as it looks.  – It is pronounced as one syllable like the Japanese Yen but with an R in betwen Y-R-En – remember one syllable.