Does it matter a lot?

[Sasala]

I am a Korean student. I used to pay no attention to the tones while learning Chinese characters as I am really able to read them out correctly. My Chinese teacher also admit this. But when I have to take examinations, I am usually confused with the four tones, especially the 2nd and 3rd tones.

I want to know if this matters a lot. Will the four tones be so important? I do read correctly, won't that be enough?

[gougou]

Are you reading pinyin or characters?

[Xiao Kui]

I used to pay no attention to the tones while learning Chinese characters as I am really able to read them out correctly. My Chinese teacher also admit this

I don't understand - how are you reading them correctly if you aren't able to distinguish between the tones? But if it is correct, don't worry abt it, if your Chinese teacher is satisfied, it seems you would do well on the test as well. Don't overprepare or waste preparation time by concentrating on things you've already mastered.

I think a good motivation for wanting to improve your pronunciation and ability to hear tones is not just to get a better test grade, but because it makes speaking and understanding Chinese so much easier and more enjoyable. Good luck!

[md1101]

out of interest, why do you always get the tones correct when you read the characters when you don't concentrate at all on the tones? are korean and chinese somehow similar - so similar in fact that you naturally know how the pronunciation and tone should sound? did you know some chinese before hand? or are you a genius and remember how everything sounds after hearing it only a couple of times in class (though not correlating that sound with a specific tone i presume)? or, as I'm attempted to believe,... are you overstating things just a tad there? OR (and this is me being less pretencious) do you simply mean your speaking is much better than your listening and that in fact you have been concentrating on tones and thus can speak them correctly but still have some listening troubles in distinguishing between tones?

Assuming that you can in fact read characters correctly yet not know the tones then i'd say that yes the tones are important. in fact even if you do subconsciously or innately know all the tones for each individual character during speech, i still suggest try to tell yourself which is which while reading just for now so you get used to the idea. and yes you do need to know the difference between 2nd and 3rd. i also find them hard to distinguish sometimes. if all you are worried about is LISTENING which i presume is the case then i'd still say you better learn the tones - after all many words do rely on the tones for meaning so you may get confused in some situations! especially in hard exams as they may purposely try to trick you with tones (then again there couldn't be too many such questions).

[Sasala]

Are you reading pinyin or characters?

I read characters. Maybe it is somewhat because I begin to learn Chinese by listening and reading, not from pinyin. I am now in Renmin university, I HAVE to take exams. Yes, I agree with you, this won't trouble my daily communication, but I really encountered big trouble in school test.

[vackey]

Sasala,

Maybe your pronunciation is not a problem, but what would you do if you come up with new words that you have not learned before, how can you read them out.

In such a case, a dictionary and enough tone knowledge will be a great help.

It seems like a [朝鲜族]Chicese speaks in Korean very well but do not know how to write on them.Surely this is not a appropriate comparison, but it do matters a lot. I wish you to make them out soon.

[Yuchi]

If you know the proper tones for the characters by reading the character, just lookup the proper tone and pinyin and write it above the character, you get use it it.