Mandarin 101
Hi everyone. In this post, I would like to start with a series of discussions and tutorials on How To Learn Mandarin. The Mandarin language was introduced to me when I was just a toddler. Being able to speak Mandarin fluently, naturally and with proper intonation must come with lots of practice and understanding of the Mandarin tones.
Let’s start with the tones. There are 4 main tones and a fifth silent tone in Mandarin. Each tone is assigned a name according to the numerical hierarchy. So we have the first, second, third, fourth and fifth (silent) tone. To represent this intonation we use the simple lines and all you have to do is follow how the line goes to produce a sound.
How does it sound like?
Mandarin is pictorial language. However how each Mandarin character sounds like cannot be taught simply by teach and listen technique because there is nothing in our visual memory to help us remember how to produce the sound it is supposed to make. For comparison, when we are taught what ‘a’ sounds like, we not only see the letter ‘a’, we also learn the sound. So the next time we see ‘a’, we can recall the memory to say the ‘a’ sound correctly. Mandarin characters however is not made up of a string of alphabets but strokes.
Henceforth in order for us to remember how to say the sound of Mandarin characters: to speak and read, they also use alpabets to represent them. I hope you understand this part before we move on.
Now let’s understand the symbols you are looking at now.
These symbols are pictorial reminders of how to say the tones. For instance, for the second tone you move the sound from low to high.
- : First intonation: direct your voice upwards with a high tone.
ˊ : Second intonation: move your voice from low to high as if you saying inquisitions like “eh?”, “huh?”
ˇ : Third intonation is a 2-part one when done slowly. (It’s still one syllable.) “ah-uh?”. Dip your head for the “ah”, raise it for the shorter “uh?”, say it fast, and you’re dead on.
ˋ : Fourth intonation: a downward low tone and the easiest one to master.
If you wish you may wish to download to listen to how this actually works. A series of videos on how to make the initial sounds (sometimes referred to as consonants) have also been created for you to learn. I hope you have enjoyed this post. Practice these sounds and we’ll see you again next time.
Resource: Annie Cook is author and eteacher on Success With Languages. She’s been speaking Mandarin for more than 4 decades and is now teaching others language learning skills on her blog.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I learnt the best way to learn those was something along the lines of:
1) You are at a dentist and you are saying aaaaaaaaaaaaaah
2) HuH? EEeeeeHH? should work
3) Man? You told me she was a woman! Man? (the rising tone)
4) Imagine you are a parent, you come into a room and you see your children making a mess and you scream: stop!
September 15th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I like your fourth tone and definitely being a parent myself, I have no problem teaching that to my kid, especially my daughter. When I was studying this language, we were not taught to compare the sounds with any other language except for what it is suppose to be read or sounded. Having to explain it to non-native Mandarin speakers what they might sound like in their native language (not necessarily English) does help in contributing to a very nice bond between two cultures.