Chinese Language Blog

For anyone raised on the ABCs and 1-2-3s, learning Chinese can seem to be a daunting task.  During my first few weeks in Beijing, I would often stare in disbelief at newspapers, menus, and street signs while thinking to myself, “How am I ever going to understand this language?”  Luckily for me, and other equally befuddled foreigners, there is an excellent system in place to assist us in our attempts at learning to speak Chinese (汉语  – hàn yǔ)  -  pinyin (拼音 – pīn yīn).  This is the Romanization of Chinese phonetics, and your gateway to understanding how to speak Chinese.  For beginning learners hoping to functionally speak the language, learning to master the 拼音 system should be the first step.

Get this chart down and you're set.

In my case, I moved to China on a whim, having zero experience with the language.  I also came to work (工作  – gōng zuò) as an English teacher (英语老师 – yīng yǔ lǎo shī), so I didn’t have the free time to enroll in a university (大学 – dà xué) Chinese program.  While I had aspirations to learn how to read (读 – dú) and write (写 – xiě) Chinese, I quickly realized that doing so requires a great deal of work, and is quite difficult to do on your own.  I was more concerned with being able to order food (点菜 – diǎn cài), bargain (讲价 – jiǎng jià), and chat (聊天 – liáo tiān) with taxi drivers. Learning to read and pronounce words and sentences in 拼音 helped facilitate this.

Learn how to read and understand pinyin and you can avoid calling your teacher a mouse.

Not only will mastery of the 拼音 system set you on your way to being able to converse in Chinese, but it will also help you begin to recognize characters.  In order to type in Chinese on a cell phone (手机 – shǒu jī) or computer (电脑 – diàn nǎo), you need to first type in the 拼音 and then choose the correct character.  I’ve found that it really helps my reading abilities when I sit down to study (学习 – xué xí) and type out my notes as I go.  This really comes in handy when traveling in and around 北京 (Beijing), as the bus/subway maps all have both the 汉字 and the 拼音.  Also, you can have fun with friends and practice your skills when you send a text message (发短信 – fā duǎn xìn) to each other in Chinese.  Who says studying a complicated foreign language can’t be fun?

After looking over Steve’s recent post about the phenomenon of Chinglish, I decided that it was about time I put together a photo album of my own depicting the hilarious, often times strange world of English with Chinese characteristics. With big cities like Beijing and Shanghai doing their best to rid the streets of Chinglish, you can still find it everywhere you go; you just have to poke around and have your camera ready! Let’s just hope that the increasingly endangered language of Chinglish manages to live on for years to come.

When it comes to learning Chinese, understanding how to 读 and 写 the thousands upon thousands of 汉字 is obviously the most difficult part of the learning process.  However, if you are simply interested in learning how to 说中文, you will probably encounter the most difficulty whilst attempting to learn the four 声调 (shēng diào – tones) that are used in Mandarin.  As a native English speaker, I was completely befuddled by the concept of a tonal language when I first arrived in China.  Needless to say, the concept of constantly raising and lowering my voice in order to be properly understood took some getting used to.  When I finally got fed up with relying on friends, phrasebooks, and charades to be understood, and decided to get a Chinese 辅导 (fǔ dǎo – tutor, lit. coach), we spent the first few weeks entirely on learning the 拼音 system and drilling the tones.  During those few weeks, there were plenty of times when I was ready to give up hope all together, as I was convinced that I would never be able to properly utilize the tones.  Thankfully, with loads of encouragement from my tutor, I chose to persevere.  I listened to her 发音 (fā yīn – pronunciation) carefully, as well as people outside, my audio books, and Chinese 电视节目 (diàn shì jié mù – television programs), always trying my best to mimic the sounds.  With time, utilizing the tones started to come more naturally, and I even started getting compliments on my pronunciation, which, to be honest, still isn’t very good at all.  But that’s the thing with learning Chinese – if you make a concerted effort, and come close, people will for the most part understand you, and will often compliment you.  Although you can get away with mixing up your tones (believe me, I do it a lot), it’s still vital for new learners to focus their attention on learning to recognize and use the four tones.  Here is a little crash course 老外 style in the four tones of Chinese:

IT IS IMPORTANT TO STUDY YOUR VOCABULARY!

This is your voice on Chinese.

第一声 (dì yī shēng – the first tone) – For tone #1, your voice starts high and stays that way, kind of like your hippie roommate in college.  Do you remember singing do-ray-me-fa-so-la-ti-do in music class?  Well, when pronouncing a syllable with the first tone, your voice should sound like it does when you hit that last “do”.

第二声 (dì èr shēng – the second tone) – On to tone #2.  The best way I can relate the second tone to something in English is the way you raise your voice when asking a question.  You voice starts somewhere in the middle, and rises to the top.  For a great cinematic example, look no further than Ron Burgundy’s teleprompter mishap in “Anchorman”:

If you just pretend like you are asking a question every time you use the second tone, you’ll do just fine.

第三声 (dì sān shēng – the third tone) – This one is by far the most difficult, if you ask me.  Your voice needs to start in the middle, drop to the bottom, and then raise up near the top.  When I started out, the third tone was the bane of my existence, and I was constantly screwing it up.  It’s difficult to relate to English, but it’s somewhat akin to the way you would give a very surprised “Whhhhaattt?!” in response to a shocking statement from a friend.  For example, a few years ago, when I told friends I was moving to China, they would often reply as such – “Whhhaaattt?! You’re moving to CHINA?!”

第四声 (dì sì shēng – the fourth tone) – Finally, there is the falling sound of the fourth tone.  This one is pretty easy.  Your voice starts high and drops all the way down.  Basically, you sound like you are angry when using the fourth tone.  Pretend like you’re dog just chewed up your favorite pair of Nikes (“BAD dog!”) or flash back to your younger years and your parents scolding you (“You’re GROUNDED!”).  Harness that anger, and you’ve got the fourth tone down.

轻声 (qīng shēng – the neutral tone, lit. gentle voice) – Oh, wait, you thought we were finished?  Ha!  Think again.  In Chinese, there is also a neutral tone.  When reading pinyin, you can spot this one by the lack of tone identifier.  Some common places you will see the neutral tone are at the end of a sentence, when asking a question, or when a syllable is repeated (the second one will have the neutral tone).  Just as it implies, your voice should be gentle, with no rising or falling.

你清楚吗? (nǐ qīngchu ma – do you understand?/is it clear?)  If not, don’t worry about it.  As my tutor told me when I was ready to give up, “多听多说, 不怕出错“  (duō tīng duō shuō, bù pà chū cuò – listen more and speak more, don’t be afraid of making mistakes).  As long as you practice and actively listen when you hear other people speaking Chinese, you’ll improve.  Of course, you don’t want to call your 妈妈 (mā ma – mother) a 马 (mǎ – horse), but that might happen when you first start out learning and speaking Chinese.