How to Fix Your Mandarin Pronunciation, Tips and Tools

"I want to kiss you! . . .uhh I mean ask you a question??"

Ill admit it I have had my fair share of mandarin slips and this was one of them. It's quite amazing that a simple stretched vowel or consonant can change the meaning of a word or sentence. Did you know that the word "kiss" and "ask" are pronounced the same way except for the tones? I like to think of it this way:

What is the difference between:

He's here already. "He's here already!"
and "He's here already?"

Big difference! When you recognize the subtle differences of your own language the importance of learning tones in Mandarin becomes evident!

First Tone: This is a high level tone represented by "-" as in ma for "mother"

Second Tone: This tone rises in a questioning tone represented by "/" as in má "to have pins and needles"

Third Tone: The tone is drawling tone falling then rising represented by "v"

Fourth Tone: a sharp falling tone represented by ""

What helped me? I think that I got the best improvement with spoken mandarin when I learned the pinyin, Chinese phonetic system from this course which I highly recommend:

Pinyin was invented in the 1950's so that foreigners and in particular English speakers could learn Chinese pronunciation easily. Learning Pinyin is the most effective way to fix your mandarin pronunciation in my opinion. Not only will it help you to identify the "four tones" and enunciate consonants correctly it will help you to "hear" mandarin as well. I really think that It really is an effective and practical system because the four tones are each indicated by a tonal mark , "Pinyin" that instructs you on your pitch and pronunciation of mandarin.

Here is a helpful tip!:

Learn to "sing" and stretch your vocal chords from your lower tones to your higher tones every day, throughout the day. This is one of my best kept secrets to consistently be able to achieve the different tones to speak mandarin with ease.

After learning pinyin I was able to ask all the right questions and not scare my friends with unwanted kisses because I didn't pronounce the mandarin word for "kiss" the right way.

So, if you are serious about fixing that pronunciation get a really great course at
"learnchinesetodaysite.info"