12
Warning: I was butchering tones in Mandarin until a friend gave me blunt feedback
I've been learning Mandarin for about 8 months, mostly through apps. I was feeling okay until I tried to order 'mian' (noodles) in a Beijing restaurant and my friend just stared at me. He finally said, 'You just asked for 'cotton' with your pork. Your third tone is flat, not dipping.' That hit hard. I realized I was rushing and not listening to myself. I stopped my usual 30-minute daily app session and now spend the first 15 minutes just repeating basic words into a voice recorder, playing it back, and comparing it to a native speaker. It's slow and a bit boring, but last week, a vendor actually understood my request for tea on the first try. Has anyone else had a specific pronunciation mistake corrected that made a big difference?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
linda6589d ago
Honestly, that exact thing happened to me with the word for book, shu1. I kept saying it like a question and my tutor finally told me I sounded like I was asking "a tree?" every time. Tbh, I got so in my head about it I avoided saying it for a week. What finally worked was slowing way down and saying the single word over and over while looking at a tone curve on my screen. Ngl, it felt silly but it built the muscle memory. Now I do that with any new word before I even try a full sentence.
5
reese868d ago
My buddy had the worst time with the word for tea, cha2. He kept using the third tone by mistake, so he'd ask for "to look for" instead of a drink. We were at a cafe and the server just stared at him. He recorded himself saying both tones back to back for like twenty minutes straight, just cha2, cha3, over and over. Said his mouth felt weird but it finally clicked.
6