Do you understand pinyin? LOOK HERE - I need help.

[bigbourke]

Hi guys I'm just starting to take Chinese as a 2nd language. We just got our first test and it is "take-home" format.

There's this section with some sound files. We are supposed to write down what the lady says in pinyin. But I am having trouble understanding what she says.

I uploaded the sound bites to youtube. Theres 5 questions / sound bytes. Remember, I have to use pinyin and use the correct tones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNXyFafRg1k...eature=youtu.be

Any help would be much appreciated. This is what I have so far:

I think number 1 is correct. I only have bits and pieces of the rest.

1) Wǒ shì Měiguó rén.

2) Wǒ yě shì ...

3) Shì, Wǒ shì ...

4) ... nǐ shì lǎoshī ma？

5)Wǒ shì ..., nǐ ne

[kari]

The first one is correct!

2) Wǒ yě shì xuésheng. ("I too am a student")

3) Shì, Wǒ shì Zhōngguóren. ("Yes, I am Chinese")

4) Wang xiānshēng nǐ shì lǎoshī ma？ (I believe she was saying, Wang. Not sure about the tone, she talked too fast. Could be a fourth tone though. And Xiansheng is "Mr." So they're asking, "Mr. Wang, are you a teacher?")

5) Wǒ shì ..., nǐ ne ....Well this last one is quite hard. To me, it sounds like she's saying xìnbǐ, which means "to write freely / to express oneself as one pleases" So she's saying something like, "I express myself freely, and you?")

Anyone, please let me know if I'm wrong on this! Also, bigbourke, good luck on your study, and welcome to the forums (I'm new myself). jiāyóu!!! -"keep going"

[jasoninchina]

She's saying wo3 xing4 li3. "My last name is Li."

[kari]

^ Are you sure? I thought I heard her say bi3 very clearly?

[imron]

Hence the perils of asking other people to do your tests for you on the Internet.

[bigbourke]

5) 我是李 she actually said Wo shi Li, ni ne?

This lady is really bad to understand. And she does ALL the soundwaves for our quizzes and tests.

[bigbourke]

nevermind jason is correct.

wo xing li, ne na?

我性李， 呢那？

[imron]

This lady is really bad to understand

By most standards, she's speaking quite clearly.

wo xing li, ne na?

我性李， 呢那？

Actually she said 我姓李，你呢?

[歐博思]

When I first took the Qinghua placement test, I had that same lady and a room with an echo; it turns out later the lady speaks clear as day you just have to adjust your ear to the language and it becomes much easier.

The "wang" kari was unsure about is 9 times out of 10 王 wáng. It is a common last common in China.

Lastly, I recommend you download Gom Player. It lets you set up custom rewind times of 3 different intervals. As such you can suit playback to your studies. Compared with media player, Gom's hotkeys are always active; in media player, you have to TAB cycle through the controls thus really ruin the point of having hotkeys if you ask me.

Good luck on your studies and I hope that soon you don't have to cheat on your tests

[kari]

But I listened to it so many times! I also thought she didn't speak clearly... but then again, I'm not as good at speaking/listening as I am reading/writing. ~_~ Still, this was a good practice for me. I need more speaking/listening study anyway. And yeah, I thought it was 王 wang.

bigbourke, good luck on your tests!!