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Assimil Chinese with Ease

  Tags: Listening | Assimil | Mandarin
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Ari
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 Message 25 of 79
12 December 2006 at 5:30am | IP Logged 
It does seem like it's worth investing in. I might have to get me a copy, since it's exactly what I've been looking for (audio, characters, pinyin and translation) for my own Chinese learning.
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Keith
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 Message 26 of 79
12 December 2006 at 6:59am | IP Logged 
Keith wrote:
At first I stumble and can't get half a sentence out. But after 3-5 minutes, I can get the sentences out on time and I start paying attention to my tone and pronunciation.


I need to change this statement. Instead of 3-5 minutes, make that about 10 minutes. Imagine saying: Qù chi miàn. as fast as could be possibly said. Obviously I could not get this out that fast. I think I took out the space that was between each word and that is why it is so fast. Anway, by the 10-minute mark, it was coming out on time at the same fast speed as what I was listening to.

As I said earlier, I am only working on the dialogue part of the lessons. That is what I removed the unnecessary space from and that is how I practice pronunciation.

Well, doing 15 minutes at a time, I take time to rest my voice in between sessions. But I want to work on my Chinese more! So I had this idea: I took the exercises and put them in a playlist and play that list which is shuffled. Now I have comprehensible input! I get to listen to the same words, but different sentences. This will just be passive listening for me. I will have it playing as I am reading this forum or typing this post. I will catch a phrase here or there.

I think the best part and perhaps unique part of Assimil Chinese with Ease is the content of the dialogues. The course does not start with My name is... I am from... Where is the train station? and such.


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Hencke
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 Message 27 of 79
12 December 2006 at 7:29am | IP Logged 
Keith wrote:
... I think I took out the space that was between each word and that is why it is so fast.

Not sure if I understand you correctly here, but I don't think it is a good idea to remove spaces between words within the same phrase. Brief spaces are sometimes part of the natural rhythm of a language and you might be messing that up if you remove them.

In Audacity you can specify the "max silence duration", eg. if you set 1 second, only silences longer than 1 sec will be removed.



Edited by Hencke on 12 December 2006 at 7:30am

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maxb
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 Message 28 of 79
12 December 2006 at 10:36am | IP Logged 
Hencke wrote:

Not sure if I understand you correctly here, but I don't think it is a good idea to remove spaces between words within the same phrase. Brief spaces are sometimes part of the natural rhythm of a language and you might be messing that up if you remove them.

In Audacity you can specify the "max silence duration", eg. if you set 1 second, only silences longer than 1 sec will be removed.


I agree with the above statement. Rhythm is a very important factor to get right if you want a native like pronunciation. So make sure you leave the spaces in the sentences untouched.
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Keith
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 Message 29 of 79
13 December 2006 at 4:28am | IP Logged 
Today, I have decided not to work on pronunciation. I will give my throat a rest. But I am playing the exercises for input into my brain. So I don't think I will be losing anything. Maybe I will be slowly transforming my brain over to a Mandarin one, if that's possible. The English side of my brain seems to be too dominate.
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Keith
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 Message 30 of 79
14 December 2006 at 6:40am | IP Logged 
Today as well, I will rest my voice. I shall remain in a state of rest until my throat feels normal again. Just thinking about Chinese sentences makes my throat hurt now. I am listening to the exercises of the lessons that I have covered.

I wonder if anybody else finds the tones of Chinese to be stressful on the vocal chords.
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maxb
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 Message 31 of 79
14 December 2006 at 7:19am | IP Logged 
They shouldn't be that stressful. One problem might be that your trying to speak at the exact same pitch as the speaker on the recording. You need to try and fine your own first tone i.e. the highest tone your can produce with a normal speaking voice.
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Keith
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 Message 32 of 79
16 December 2006 at 11:16pm | IP Logged 
maxb wrote:
They shouldn't be that stressful. One problem might be that your trying to speak at the exact same pitch as the speaker on the recording. You need to try and fine your own first tone i.e. the highest tone your can produce with a normal speaking voice.


You might be right. I have no musical background so I am unable to verify whether you are right about me or not.

I need this!
"modifying the model voice, blending it with the learner's voice, which has been divided into bands and analysed for speed, pitch, and so on using software developed by Stockholm's KTH, one of the FLIC project's partners. The resulting voice mimics the learner's own, yet has the superior pronunciation of the model voice."


Although, I normally talk very little in a day. So using my voice for 15 minutes x 4 is a lot. Plus, it is the back of the throat. The same sentences, over and over. This is not the same as having a conversation with someone for an hour. This is much more intense.

When I start back up, I will start with a very short period and build up. It will probably take me a long time to complete this course.



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