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The "a" in "yang" is like the "a" in "father," and the accent above the "a" means that the tone is rising, so say "yang" as if you're asking a question. The "zhou" sounds basically like "jo" (like the name "Joe," just with less of the "w" sound at the end), and the accent above the "o" means it's going to be a high, flat tone; so say it like you're doing a high-pitched monotone robot voice.
We use tones very rarely, but in Chinese they're quite important. If you don't say the right tone, "yang" could turn into "sheep" or "beg" or "oxygen."
You may also be wondering why they couldn't just write "jo" (or at least "jou") instead of "zhou." Well, in Mandarin Chinese, "zh" and "j" sound different. "J" is more in the front of the mouth, almost like a "dz" sound, and "zh" is more like our "j" sound. They have a couple of other pairs like that, like "x"/"sh" ("x" is a "sh" sound, but so far forward in the mouth it's almost like a "s," and "sh" is basically like our "sh") and "q"/"ch" ("q" is again like "ch" but far forward in the mouth so it's almost a "t," and "ch" is like our "ch"). That's why you have words like "qing" and "xiaolin" and "zhou" - they're different to a Mandarin Chinese speaker's ear from "ching" and "shaolin" and "jou."
Took two semesters of Mandarin Chinese at the University of Colorado at Boulder and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangzhou
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you can hear the pronounciation through
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggyang03=Yang-chou
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