Learn Chinese With Cryptogee - First Tone Words - 用Cryptogee学习中文 - 第一个单词
I have decided to go back to basics and learn the sounds of the four main tones in Mandarin. Whilst making these videos I've discovered that I have been pronouncing certain words slightly incorrectly.
Since starting to concentrate on tones I've found that certain things are beginning to click into place. Hopefully over the next few videos you'll see an improvement, and I'm going to keep working hard at my grammar.
Congratulations on your decision to learn Chinese and get your tones right. I hope you don't mind if a linguist gives you a few suggestions on how to correct your mistakes:
Some of your problems are caused by misinterpreting Hanyu Pinyin. In the word 今天“today” spelled jīntiān / jintian, for example, the letter “J” represents /tɕ/, a voiceless consonant (made without aspiration or vocal cord vibration). “J” does NOT represent the voiced /dʒ/ sound one hears in the English word “John”.
Another problem is your intonation, which completely destroys the tones in your introduction. When you said 中文 zhōngwén / jongwen (1st tone + 2nd tone), your falling intonation (carried over from English) made it sound like you were saying: 腫問 zhǒng wèn / joong wenn “swollen ask ???”
I hope to launch a Udemy course to lay a firm foundation for learning Chinese sounds. In the meantime, you can check out my occasional contributions on Steemit and Quora:
https://steemit.com/cn/@wentong-syhhae/introduction-to-mandarin-chinese-the-tones
Wow thank you so much! I really need this kind of feedback!
This is the first video I have made using a different tutorial than my usual 'Hello Chinese' app, so a lot of these words are new to me. Also my introduction I used the Google English to Chinese translate function, and the voice speaks so fast that I had trouble working out which tones zhong wen is.
That is why I sound so uncertain when I say it! I'm sort of saying zhong wen? Also I am having trouble with those voiceless consonants, like I'm having problem with zai, I'm using a T sound and I know it's not that, but it's the closest I can get to it.
I'll keep trying though! :-)
Thanks again for your comments, I will go and check out your article now, and please do come back and give me more advice; I need it! :-D
Cg
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