My Nodding to Tones Problem...

[Andrew 45]

Hello again!

I am on the last lesson of Mandarin Pimsleur, and I thought I would have kicked this habit by now, but I am afraid I am still doing it. When I speak, I tend to nod my head to the tones as a somewhat physical "feedback" to make sure I am getting the tones right. I remember reading an article I can no longer find that specified that this is a beginner's habit that dissipates with time (also moving one's eyes to the tones) and that one should not worry too much about it. I have no illusions that I am no longer a beginner just for finishing all 90 (currently, anyway) lessons of Pimsleur, but I was kind of hoping that this would have been resolved by now.

Has anyone had this habit? Did it go away naturally or did you need to somehow fix your head it place for a long time while speaking Chinese? For me, this is mostly just with the second (rising) and third (rising-falling) tones and I don't nod at all on the high level and falling tones (thankfully) but this still has to look silly. I haven't been commented on it because I am self-studying currently (no budget for anything else, the Pimsleurs belong to the library) and have not had a conversation in Mandarin as of yet.

Sorry if this topic has been covered, I did a search and did not find anything except one reply to another topic.

Thank you!

[xiaoxiaocao]

I used to walk around stomping my foot to the fourth tone, seem to have stopped that now....I think

Do whatever works for you at first, it will go away with time.

[roddy]

Stick a mirror in front of yourself while practicing. Seriously. You just need the feedback of knowing when you're doing it so you can stop yourself.

[Wang7]

I'm into the second year of study, and I continue to move my index finger mimicking a particular tone: "no harm, no foul."

[Andrew 45]

Alright, thank you guys, I just wanted to make sure that this eventually dissipates and not something where if I haven't gotten it gone by a certain time, it'll be with me forever.

I will definitely try the mirror thing, it makes sense. When I notice I'm nodding my head during Pimsleur, I'm only thinking about how silly it looks. I need to KNOW how silly it looks, so this will provide that kind of feed back.

Thank you!

[roddy]

So Andrew, still doing a nodding-dog impression as you practice?

[kdavid]

I'm into the second year of study, and I continue to move my index finger mimicking a particular tone.

I did the same thing for about the first six months or so.

[Andrew 45]

Thank you for the follow up. I'd like to say this is a problem I forgot I had, but I'll always have the memories.

As for progress, it eventually "translated" into nodding my eyes up and down as I said the tones, but then eventually I was (as I am now) able to say tones without "doing" anything like that unless I'm learning a new word.

Been busy with finance classes lately though, so I haven't had a chance to study Chinese as much as I'd like