Why you shouldn’t focus too much on the Chinese tones
What's the Importance of Tones in the Chinese Language?
If you stressed too much with this, you and the one you convinced will give up. The tone is what takes the most time to master. Not reading.
It's not what you say it's how you say it.
Which means…
What is the right order when speaking Chinese?
The tones are particular important when enunciating or uttering words and not even so. No context = no understanding.
The pronunciation is the hardest but it's still not the tone.
If you do not understand the difference between pronunciation and tone. Check my article on this subject.
Pronunciation is not intonation
https://thinknspeak.net/pronunciation-is-not-intonation/
The rhythm is the easiest
You need to listen to someone saying it (not teaching It. that's different.)
Do you think Chinese people think about tone when they speak?
Do you think about grammar when you speak?
The answer is NO! They just say the thing without thinking.
Learn instead how to say it the same way. Like the native.
You do not want to speak better than them. You just want to understand and be understood.
That’ll be good enough.
Most Teacher do not speak normally
Most foreign (Not Chinese) teachers and even most Chinese one do NOT sound native.
They have the right tones, but they don't sound NATIVE.
If you want to practice with something, your best options are TV and movies, as well as game.
They won’t emphasis, they won’t cheat. They will simply speak normally.
And this is where I come in. My material (free) is using video (YouTube) with a set of tools to help in your Chinese mandarin learning. Tools such as games, direct access to dictionaries and research as well as audio tools to help you listen closely and practice speaking.
You should check it out.
Why Chinese people don’t understand what you say at the early stage of your learning?
You were probably speaking in words.
Chinese is not spoken in words.
It's spoken in stream. And that's even more important than tones.
You should say 厕所在哪里 like saying 12345 quickly. same goes for 我想去厕所。
That's why there's no space between 'words sort of'. I asked people often at the beginning to speak slowly.
请慢说一点儿。 Most people I asked. They couldn't slow it down or word it out word by word. Teacher's could, but normal Chinese people, not really.
How should you learn it then?
I always recommend learning Chinese this way: Start with small stream as you get better the stream can get longer.
Don't start with words. I remember in my beginning trying to say 'practice' 练习 to a Chinese.
Do you have any idea how many words is exactly pronounced LIANXI
At least 7, of course, you must have the right tone (and even so, doesn't help much) if the context is not established.
Instead if you say: 你得练习，知道吗？in the right context. Now he's going to understand. You won't even have to think about tone. It won’t matter that much.
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Can you imagine having to think like this?
You are trying to make a sentence. And you have to think this way.
"Okay, this one is tone no. 2 the next one is no.4 followed by... with that rule and that rule..."
This way, you will never speak the language. It's gonna take 60 years.
This is ridiculous. Do you think the Chinese people learn it this way?
Actually when you become able to speak enough, ask them about a sentence they just spoke.
What were the tones in that sentence? If he's not a teacher, like a farmer or something, he won't even know.
My father didn't know Jack squad about grammar. Did that prevent him from speaking two languages?
Nope!
Conclusion
I am a retired R&D guy. I spend a long time researching as well as understanding the Chinese language.
As well as making those tools.
In order to help others acquired the language in a easier and faster manner.
I do that at my leisure. I’m just sharing my acquired knowledge with you.
Feel free to donate to my cause. It will help me make more and better content.
Thanks every one. 祝你好运
克丹尼 Denis Cote
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