Rant: My uncle in Chengdu laughed at my Mandarin for 10 minutes

I was at a family dinner in Chengdu last spring and tried to order mapo tofu using the tones I learned from an app. My uncle across the table started laughing so hard he had to put down his chopsticks, then said my pronunciation sounded like a 'robot playing ping pong'. Do you think pushing through the embarrassment is the only way to get better, or should I just stick to typing in Chinese instead of speaking it?

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1 Comment

riverhill21d ago

Honestly never thought I'd say this, but that robot ping pong remark would've made me want to prove him wrong even harder.