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Eric’s Mandarin Log (see post 1 for course list) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 141 08 July 2007 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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After a week of chorusing, mostly while driving to school, I am feeling relatively comfortable with tones. So now I am moving on to unaspirated b, d, and g and aspirated t, p, and k. The aspirated consonants seem straightforward, but can anyone explain to me the best way to properly pronounce b, d, and g? I can't find any explanations.
As an aside, does anyone stop practicing at stop lights? When there is someone in the next lane, I don't have the nerve to continue: ma, ma, ma... Edited by newyorkeric on 08 July 2007 at 6:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6457 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 10 of 141 08 July 2007 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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b, d, and g as in ba, dui, and gou? I just go for the "normal" b, d and g. Yeah, i have read that it's supposed to be a bit of something inbetween p/b, t/d and g/k, but my hearing does not detect it in speech.
Anyway, if you will continiue with lots of audio and chorusing, the sound will adjust itself later on. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6550 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 11 of 141 08 July 2007 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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My performance goes way down in traffic.
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| johntothea Senior Member United States Joined 6628 days ago 193 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, Polish, French | Message 12 of 141 08 July 2007 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Maybe you could pretend to talk on the phone? :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 141 14 July 2007 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Work the past week has been mostly real work and not fun work. So there hasn't been much time for practicing. I did figure a way to pronounce unaspirated p, t, and k. To pronounce unaspirated p, for example, I pronounce English b a number of times and then change to a p sound. Doing this helps me figure out what my mouth should be doing to remove the aspiration.
Next tasks: learning to pronounce z and c and moving on to FSI pronunciation tape 6, tone combinations. Edited by newyorkeric on 16 July 2007 at 11:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 141 23 July 2007 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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My major accomplishment this week was upgrading the operating system of an old pda so I can now run Pleco. Pleco is a pretty sweet Chinese/English dictionary and flashcard software package for Chinese learners. It supports pinyin, which is essential because I am not currently studying characters.
I think I got that tricky c down now. I've read that it sounds like the ts in the English word its. After a fustrating couple of days listening to audio samples, I found that this description is a poor one since it implies that an s sound comes after a t sound. Actually the t and s are pronounced at the same time with aspiration. OK, that's enough airtime for a single letter... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 141 31 July 2007 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am happy to say that I have moved on from concentrating strictly on tones and pronunciation to more fun material. In the past week I completed the first 4 lessons of Pimsleur I. Because my listening skills are so bad, before each lesson I need to memorize the vocabulary including the tones and the tricky consonants (x vs. sh for example).
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| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 141 21 August 2007 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am now in Singapore, visiting my wife and her family and perusing bookstores for foreign language materials. The amount of Japanese materials available here is staggering.
As for studying, I listened to about 20 chinesepod lessons with transcripts in the past week. I will add any new words to my PDA flashcard program when I get home (I forget to bring the software to link the PDA to a PC. D'oh!) I am also making a list of words that I hear spoken but don't know the meaning. But my main focus is on pronunciation. My tones, I think are pretty good, but I still have trouble with certain sounds. j, q, c, x, for example. I thought I had a start on these but my wife tells me that I am pronouncing them totally WRONG. So she is breaking me down and building me back up. BTW, even understanding a word or two of the conversations on the street or on tv is such a confidence booster. PS The first 60 pages or so of Heisig and Richardson's Remembering Simplified Hanzi 1 and Remembering Traditional Hanzi 1 are available for free here: http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublica tions/Remembering%20Hanzi%201.htm Edited by newyorkeric on 23 August 2007 at 1:26am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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