Tones 声调
Whilst pronunciation of Chinese often comes quite naturally to British pupils, the four tones need a wee bit of tuning.
in Mandarin Chinese there are 4 tones
As Mandarin Chinese is a ‘tonal language’, the way a given word is said or any part of a word can change its meaning.
Kaiser’s ‘dude system’ of tones
Tones in Mandarin have some parallels with the way we express emotion through intonation in English. Kaiser’s ‘dude system’ helps learners develop a feeling for the tones.
First Tone: Dūde — the disapproving tone, as to the clumsy roommate who’s just knocked over your three-foot Graphix and gotten bong water all over your Poli Sci 142 reader:
“Dude, I can’t believe you spilled my bong again!”
Second Tone: Dúde? — in the concerned but creeped-out way you might address the roommate you discover sitting naked and cross-legged in the dark, chanting “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” and sounding a little brass bell.
Third Tone: Duǔde — scornfully, as if your roommate has asked to borrow $50 so his sensei can align his chakras: “Yeah, right, dude.”
Fourth Tone: Dùde! — as if you are exclaiming in triumph to your roommate when coming home from class having gotten a date with mega-babe Elena from your macroeconomics class.
[Originally posted on Quora.]
[Originally posted on Sinoplice.]
More Chinese Input to improve your Chinese output
Smile :)
Deep Breath.
Sing!
Singing a children’s song is a great way to start and practice. You can also try songs with a lot of repetition, like the Chinese song, 《对不起我的中文不好》Sorry, my Chinese is not so good sang by 前进乐团 Transition, a three piece British rock band. Or checkout《我沒有》I don’t have by 薇格 Wéko, a Watsonian.
This takes lots of practice but the more pupils listen to the language (there are loads of great Chinese films and series on Netflix - with subtitles!) and keep trying to speak it, it does come.