For Americans speaking Chinese, what would a "thick" accent sound like?

[歐博思]

I figure just generally unclear and hard to understand, but what do you picture in your mind when someone tells you "x person speaks Chinese with a really thick American accent"? Someone posted an audio clip in the past about this. "....annoy your classmates, by speaking like them.." Does this clip nail it on the head?

[jbradfor]

I think it's very difficult to detect one's own accent; after all, if one could, one would probably work to get rid of it.

I remember some years ago my classmates were asking our teacher what people from different languages sounded like speaking Chinese, e.g. native Japanese speakers, etc. Then one student asked what native English speakers sound like speaking Chinese, and another student responded with "just listen to yourself speak!" The first student was not amused.

[Don_Horhe]

Hmm, my stereotype for a thick American accent is 一起去 coming out as "itchy chew". IMHO, this is mainly due to the fact that most varieties of English do not have short, tense monophthongs, and it takes a while to get used to producing them instinctively.

[Hofmann]

That was me.

[Brian US]

Hofmann nailed it. For us Americans that still try, the other problems come out besides the absence of tones. Most of my Western friends cannot get the Chinese "u" sound. English sounds tend to be guttural, so the 去 like Don said, comes out as "chew."

I also teased my British classmates for their sixth tone (if you count the fifth as the soft tone). It was mostly turning the third tone into a more up and down motion like ^. An example would be lao^shi wo^ you^ wen2ti. Throw in a Welsh accent and it's just cute.

[heifeng]

I would say Americans speaking Chinese who would be classified as having a 'heavy accent' might have some of the following problems, (& of course, not limited to just Americans):

1. SH & X sometimes gets a bit confused, such as in Shui & xue

2. U Vs. V (as in Nu vs. Nv, Lu Vs. Lv)

3. Tone Extremes: Underdoing or overdoing the tones. For example, halfway adding tones onto words (just treating the word like English with some sort of stress (not necessarily a tone, but maybe an attempted tone) usually on a beginning syllable and nothing on the end) ~OR~ over analyzing and adding/pronouncing a tone when it should be a 轻声, such as in everyday words like 先生, 我们, 小姐.: ~or~ plain old monotone & fast (b/c that means you must be fluent :o )..and then it's possible no one has any idea what language they are speaking....tongues....something backwards......who knows.

[amandagmu]

I don't know about American accent, but I consistently mess up pinyin that has that "y" sound... e.g. 教育，体育，电影, 影像. I can't be the only one with this problem...?

[heifeng]

Korean students also seem to have a problem with yu, such as it coming out like wu or sometimes yue.

Are you having a problem with Y as an initial no matter what the final is? Or is Yang, yue, yi etc. ok?

[Lu]

The only thing I can think of is that Americans (but certainly not all Westerners, I can't imagine a Dutch doing it wrong) have trouble saying nü and lü. Strangely, yu and xu and such seem to be less of a problem. Koreans pronounce yu as wi and talk about Han-wi and kou-wi.

I'm not sure what a Dutch accent could be, although I know what a Dutch accent in English sounds like and can imitate it well.

[SimonCNL]

Well some people are having difficulties with pronouncing the right tones... I've heard a few dutch people ending every sentence with the 2nd tone. Sounds pretty funny.

[jbradfor]

English sounds tend to be guttural, so the 去 like Don said, comes out as "chew."

Umm, you mean it shouldn't? Opps. :o

[amandagmu]

Hmm... good point on the Y sound... I don't have problems with the other finals you've mentioned, just those I wrote above. I wonder if it isn't a problem regarding my teachers though? I didn't have such an issue in Taiwan but when my Beijing teachers say the "ying" in 电影 and the "yu" in 体育 it sounds...funky. Not at all like my teachers in Taiwan. Is that normal or am I hearing things? :blink:

[Daan]

Here's a pretty thick accent...

. He does pretty well, I think, for someone who probably learnt these lines by heart phonetically. The only part I really can't get is where he says Kěshi zhǎobudào héshì de ???. It sounds like jugang with some decidedly odd tones going on, and is supposed to mean 'master cylinder'. Any ideas? Is it supposed to be jùgāng 巨缸?

[Hofmann]

主缸

[heifeng]

English sounds tend to be guttural, so the 去 like Don said, comes out as "chew."

Umm, you mean it shouldn't? Opps.

the 1 minute solution (maybe)

For the chu sound (which is sort of like the English word chew) your lips should start in the position to say the final, ie. 'wu' (basically rounded & sort of puckered up, say wu wu chu)

For qu, your lips should first take the shape of the final sound of v, such as lv or nv (closest English equivalent I can think of is ew (as in yucky) which is not rounded, but you probably need to consult with one of the books that show the lip shape for a reference). Now say lv, nv, qu.

That being said I always get tongue tied when I need to say 驱逐出境

[Brian US]

Here's a pretty thick accent...Navy SEAL Steve McGarrett speaking Mandarin in Hawaii Five 0.

Some of the lines he did alright, but the end did it in for me when saying 谢谢 it came out as shee shee. This is the same thing that happened when I tried to teach my mom some Chinese when she came last summer. After meeting my landlord I had her say thanks, which came out as shee shee. Of course my landlord praised how great her Chinese was

Edit: after watching the video again, the actor does a better job with 谢谢, but alas no hope for my mom.