Non- Chinese learning Mandarin Part 2

 

This is a continuation of part 1.

This blog is for foreigners who intend to learn Chinese. 

In part 1, I stated the following:

Briefly:

i.          There are many characters with different tones which can easily be represented by the tone marks on top of romanised letters.

ii.         Many characters carry neutral tones when combined with other characters and they carry different meanings.

iii.        The same character can represent a completely different tone and mean a completely different thing.

iv.        The same character can represent a completely different sound.

v.         I believe there may be more reasons but the above should suffice to show why Pinyin (romanisation) is a must to learn good Mandarin.

Let me give a few examples to explain the above.

i.                    This needs no explanation as all characters can be written in Pinyin with tone marks that can never be mispronounced once we have learned the tone marks and how to pronounce words in Pinyin. Unlike English, there is no two different ways to pronounce any of the letters. For example, the letter A in English represents 5 different sounds. LINK.

 

ii.                  Many Chinese adults in Malaysia are unaware of the neutral tone which is important to speak the Chinese language the way it was intended to be spoken.

Here are a few of the many examples which students will learn when they learn Pinyin.

·        妻子 qī​zǐ​ wife and children (the second character with a third tone).

妻子 qī​zi​ wife (the second character with a neutral tone).

·        胡子 hú​zi​ beard / mustache or whiskers (second character with a neutral tone).

·        虎子 hǔ​zǐ​ tiger cub (second character with the 3^rd tone).

·        记得 jì​de​ to remember – this word is mispronounced even by most of the Chinese in Mainland China. The second character has a neutral tone. It is wrongly pronounced as in the word pronounced as 既得 jì​dé​.

·        衣服 yī​fu​ clothes. This word is wrongly pronounced as yī​fú because 服 as a single word is pronounced as fú.

There are hundreds of such examples but the above should suffice to make it clear why Pinyin is important.

iii.               Many Chinese in Malaysia order ‘exploded chicken’ instead of fried chicken. This is because they had learned the character 炸 zhà​ to burst; to explode. They order zhà jī instead zhá jī. The same character 炸 is pronounced as zhà as well as zhá.

When I say I am an accountant in Chinese - 会计师 kuài​jì​shī​, many Chinese can’t understand and when I explain they exclaim ohh huìjìshī.

This is because the same character 会 has two different pronunciations. 

Many Chinese teachers on videos teaching Mandarin pronounce the character 为 wéi wrongly as为 wèi.This mispronunciation will never happen when we read in Pinyin.

iv.                Most people in Malaysia don’t know the character 得 děi​  which means to have to / must / to need to. They have learned it as 得 de.

Another word that many don’t understand is 暖和 nuǎn​huo​ warm / nice and warm. When I explain what I had said they say, ohh you mean nuǎn hé. This is because 和 is almost always read or sounded out as 和 hé.

Unfortunately, most of those above 40 years old learned Mandarin in school without Pinyin. They have learned it the wrong way and therefore in a group setting because all the Chinese say it the same way the Indian (me) has to be wrong.       

No one will ever read any of the above words wrongly using Pinyin with tone marks.

In addition to the above problems faced by non-Chinese learning to speak Chinese are problems with the Chinese speaking Mandarin using Hakka and Cantonese pronunciations.

Those who learned Mandarin without Pinyin sound out words such as cu as chu; cong as chong; zuan as zhuan; zan as zhan; cao as chao; ca as cha etc.The beauty of the Chinese language is lost because of these mispronunciations.

When I attempt to speak Mandarin and the listener says that I speak good Mandarin, I usually reply saying, mamahuhu eryi ( 马马虎虎 mǎ​ma​hū​hū​ meaning so-so / tolerable / fair  . I usually get a response such as Ohh mamafufu. They then speak in Malay thinking I cannot pronounce Mandarin correctly. This is because of Cantonese influence. It is 老虎 lǎo​hǔ​ tiger in Mandarin pronounced as lohfu in Cantonese.

Another reason why it is difficult to learn to speak Mandarin in Sabah, Malaysia is because most of the Chinese speak Hakka and hardly speak proper Mandarin.

Listening and understanding Mandarin is one thing but to speak it correctly is a different kettle of fish. 

The best way to learn to speak Mandarin would be to visit China.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend you to subscribe to the following channel where there are more than 500 free lessons. LINK    

I have recently started learning Mandarin again and hope to increase my vocabulary. I hope to bring my speaking level to HSK level 5 by the end of the year. I will devote more hours per day commencing July 2024.

Personal advertisement:

Note: For those interested in teaching kids who cannot read in English but are able to read in Pinyin and in Malay please visit my blog https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/

Here is one of many testimonials from parents who have benefitted from my post. https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2023/05/testimonial-from-california.html

I have uploaded free of charge lessons which you may find at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2021/10/my-challenge-to-jeffrey-bowers.html

Feel free to contact me if you know of kids who are intelligent but cannot read in English. All advice is free of charge.