First off, for those of us that come from non-tonal languages, trying to think about making a sound and modulating the tone of your voice to go up and down is a process that we are utterly unused to. It doesn’t come naturally. But, fret not. You can learn tones. And here’s how.

Mime your way to the right tone

When we were in School, we were first taught to act out the tones physically to pronounce them right. The idea is to move your head to accompany your voice and help it modulate the right way.

Is this Nincha cat acting out a first tone?

By moving your head from the left to the right in a diagonal downwards manner, you’re miming a fourth, falling, tone. Now trying saying ma (as in the English word “mama”) and moving your head (and voice) in that diagonal downwards manner. Hopefully, you’ve pronounced ma4, which means to yell. If at all possible, get a native speaker to tell you if you’re saying it right or not. Or record yourself to see if you sound right.

While this is fun when you’re young and in class, it’s not a very scientific method and it’s kinda impractical. (Imagine how people would react if you started acting out all your tones in the street in China?) Another method is to use hand gestures instead of head movements. (But again, you’ll look odd). But if it helps you pronounce correctly, go for it. In China, we’re all weird laowais (foreigners) anyways..

How on earth do you remember which tone to use?

Well, there’s no secret here. You’ve got to memorize them. As a non-native, it’s really important to focus and work hard on getting the tones right.

Make sure when you’re learning a new word, to lo memorize its tone(s) as well. Consider both aspects as part of the same unit. You wouldn’t ignore accents in Spanish, would you? Treat tones the same way. They’re there for a reason. So write down the pinyin with tones. Or, if you’re not using pinyin, add tone marks above the characters. One way is to use color codes (one color per tone). Find your prefered way to write them down. And memorize them.

True, some teachers will let tone mistakes slide because you’re learning to form sentences at the same time. Don’t let that fool you. It doesn’t mean you can just ignore tones and get away with it. You need to know the correct pronunciation from the start.

Doesn’t sound fun? Here’s something to cheer you up

Figuring out tones don’t always come naturally to the Chinese either. If you ask a Chinese person what tone a particular character should be pronounced with, they will almost always say the sound out loud a few times. They will actually listen to how they are saying it, and hear which tone it is. They will sometimes even get it wrong (figuring out which tone it is, not pronouncing it, mind you). That’s because Chinese people don’t really think in terms of pinyin and tones. And rely on pinyin less than we foreigners do!

Nonetheless, knowing the Chinese sometimes write down the wrong tone kinda makes me happy.

Anyhoo…Time to take the pressure down a notch.

When you’re a beginner, context is everything

The worst thing you could do in learning Chinese is not speak at all because you’re worried you’re going to say something wrong or worse, dumb. Or offensive. So go ahead and speak. Even if you don’t have your tones down pat yet. (No, we’re not saying tones don’t matter. Sorry!) But when you start speaking Chinese, you are bound to use the wrong tone at some point, despite your best efforts. That’s OK.

When you’re speaking in everyday life, – particularly at the beginner level – context is your friend. While the Chinese might be unused to hearing people pronounce Chinese wrong, they’ll still listen to the word in its context to try to understand what on earth you’re trying to say. Usually. (Unless of course they’ve decided you can’t speak Chinese and that there’s no point in listening to you. You’ll get a dismissive “ting bu dong” and that’s it. That also happens.) This helps tremendously to get by. Especially when you’re a newbie. Because, then, the predictability of what you’re going to say is high.

Make mistakes!

All in all, trial and error is what’ll help you really learn how to pronounce Chinese. You’ll ask for sugar and get soup for instance (both pronounced tang; but with different tones). Or you simply won’t get anything at all. That’s how you learn.

And then, there’ll be occasional surprises. Just to keep you on your toes! When living in China, sometimes you think you’ve mastered the right tone and pronunciation for something. Then you go to a new restaurant and order what you usually ask for. Suddenly no one understands you anymore. Vinegar is an example.

Trial and error. Adjusting. Correcting. That’s the key. And, if not in China to try your pronunciation out IRL, practice is even more essential. Practice your Chinese tones out loud. Find someone to practice them on. Listen to spoken Chinese and try to recognize which tones are being used. Do tone drills. And so on.

Do the work and you’ll get there. Like we said, don’t be afraid to make mistakes; chat away and get your tones wrong. It’s ok because mistakes (and getting corrected) are key in the learning process. Eventually you’ll be understood. Odds are you’re not going to end up insulting people unintentionally. And if you do, a nice smile and a heartfelt apology can do wonders

The Nincha Team

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The post Mime your way to spot-on tones! appeared first on Ninchanese.

Those five little accents are key to being understood in China and maintaining peaceful interactions with people. This is a lesson I learned the hard way when I first moved to China…

You might think you’re a pro at speaking Chinese…

I started learning Chinese in middle school, then studied Chinese all through high school and University. My third year of University, I went to live in China. For a year. I was confident I’d be able to speak Chinese with everybody there. I mean I knew tons of vocab. Turns out, I was wrong.

but the Chinese won’t think so.

Why? Because even if I knew a bunch of words, I didn’t really know how to pronounce them. Back in school, my Chinese teachers understood me… but then they could more or less guess the kind of things I was going to say since they were the ones that’d taught them to me in the first place. That and/or the fact they’d grown accustomed to hearing foreigners speak butcher Chinese words. But in China? No one understood me at first. I had to go back to the basics. “Me want this.” Yeah, that bad.

Others, I know, have had similar experiences. On his Sinosplice blog, John mentions “the horrifying discovery that no one in China understood my Chinese”.

Yup, that’s how most people will look at you the first time you try to say something in Chinese to them…

Chinese vs. non-tonal languages: Chinese tones matter

This speaks volumes about traditional western teaching methods (but that’s another story) but also shows the importance of pronunciation (pinyin) and above all, of using Chinese tones well.

Tones are particularly important in Chinese because they’re key to speaking Chinese properly. Yet they’re so very easy for us to overlook (at first) because we come from non-tonal languages.

Now, if you already speak Cantonese, a massively tonal language (7 tones!), Chinese tones are just child’s play for you. Good for you.

Ok, let’s backtrack a bit. What are Chinese tones?

Chinese Tones are represented by little lines above the letters, kind of like accents in other languages. If you’ve taken Spanish or French, you know what we mean: this “à” for instance has an accent on it. Tones tell you how to accentuate the sound. In Chinese, each syllable has its own tone. The name Beijing, for instance, has two different tones.

Like this:  

Four tones and a neutral one

In Chinese (Mandarin), there are  four tones. Five actually. Four active tones and a neutral one. They look like this (courtesy of Sinosplice):

And here’s how you’re supposed to pronounce each tone.

• First tones are high and level.

They sound high and flat, like the second syllable in “ta-daa!

• Second tones are rising tones

Think of them as asking “what?!”

• Third tones start low, dip and then go back up. 

Think of saying “no?!” like you can’t believe what the person is saying.

I love 3rd tones. They’re often the easiest to recognize because of the way the voice goes up and down.

Update: that being said, third tones are a little tricky. They like to change forms and sound kind of like second tones when in the middle of a bunch of other tones.

• Fourth tones start high and fall low. They’re called falling tones.

Kinda like saying “hey”.

I like to think of the 4th tone as being the mean counterpart to the 2nd tone. The 4th is harsh and bold. The 2nd tone goes up and is hopeful. Yes, I make up little stories about tones. You should too.

• Lastly, fifth tones are neutral. 

Good news: no effort needed to learn those!

Remind me again, why are tones so important?

The Chinese language is composed of characters; there are a limited number of sounds (called pinyin) used to pronounce these characters.In fact, there are a lot more characters than there are sounds. So, one key thing to know about Chinese is that many words have very similar pronunciations. Similar to the point of even often being the same.

In that case, the only thing that allows you to tell two words apart (when you hear them pronounced; in writing, you simply have to look at the two different characters to tell them apart) is the tone with which they are pronounced.

糖 means sugar. It’s pronounced táng. 汤 means soup. It’s also pronounced tāng, but with a different tone.

So, as you can figure, learning how to pronounce tones correctly is a big part of learning how to speak Chinese!

And it’s usually considered one of the biggest challenges in learning Chinese. It does take work to get them right. Good news, tho! You’ll get there. As always, don’t be afraid to make mistakes; this is the only way you’ll learn. Practice listening to spoken Chinese and get accustomed to how tones sound. Chat away in Chinese and get your tones wrong. It’s ok. Eventually you’ll be understood. Like we said, odds are you’re not going to end up insulting people unintentionally.

As long as you don’t try this video’s kind of sentences…

Next time, we’ll be talking about methods to improve your tones speaking and tone comprehension. People might think you’re crazy but it’ll work!

What’s worse: getting insulted or people thinking you’re crazy?

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post Chinese tones: Oops, that’s the wrong tone! appeared first on Ninchanese.