English words for teaching tones

[herradw]

Hi,

I've heard about teachers using English words to illustrate or teach the concept of Chinese tones to native English learners.

Is somebody familiar with this approach and can provide example words for each tone?

All I remember is "Help!" as used in the SOS call is supposed to be pronounced like 1st tone.

Please help!

[ChTTay]

Are you asking because you want to learn the tones or just out of curiousity?

When I started learning pinyin with a tutor she just helped me get my head around 2nd tone by relating it to 'question' in English. The 2nd tone rises like it would if you were asking a question in English. They did something similar at Tsinghua beginners class.

I've not come across anything that relates the other tones to English.

If you are just trying to learn the tones, just find some good recordings and practice. If you don't have a teacher, record your voice and compare it to the recording.

I found this website from the Oxford Centre for Teaching Chinese very helpful when I first started. It's nothing fancy but it has a lot of sound files;

http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Pinyin.htm

[yaokong]

Calling your mom in four different ways.

1. mā Calling from far away.

2. má Asking, as in "are you here?"

3. mǎ Irritated by her repeated asking.

4. mà Utterly fed up, setting an end to it.

[ChTTay]

Nice, I never thought of that. Although, I don't know anyone in the UK who calls there Mum "ma" ... maybe i'm just posh though

[herradw]

I'm a teacher and collect ways to teach the tones to students ... thanks for your answers.

I need really different English words that depend on a certain context ... the "ma" illustrates that but the fact that it's "ma" for each tone makes it look just like practicing the Chinese word.

I came across this method at a Mandarin teacher conference but my notes are not complete.

If somebody has some more ideas especially for 2nd and 3rd tone would be great.

[MandarinCslpod]

Do you mean this method? This method is helpful for those who start Chinese study at the very beginning of Chinese pronunciation.

[herradw]

Yes - thanks - I think that is the idea, though the teachers who presented in Beijing used a different English word for each tone.

Since there seems to be a bunch of examples in English it's probably fine for a teacher to choose whatever a (s)he wants to use as long as the situation is right - just like yaokong did with the

ma-example.

Thanks again. Since i'm not a native English speaker it is helpful for me to see the relevance of the context for the tone analogy in English.

[count_zero]

First tone is the robot voice.

"I AM A ROBOT! EX_TER_MIN_ATE!"

[MandarinCslpod]

The first tone is not that difficult as the second tone or the third tone for second language students. They requires more practice.

[Demonic_Duck]

First tone - high and level - don't think there's really an English equivalent, but perhaps you could imagine 东 as the onomatopoeic "dong!" sound that a bell makes when it chimes.

Second tone - the "question tone" - imagine it like a confused "huh?" when someone says something you didn't understand.

Third tone - in English, it could express uncertainty, such as the "uhhh" in "uhhh, I'm not quite sure".

Fourth tone - the "angry tone" - like telling someone "no!" or "stop!"

Neutral tone - just like any unstressed syllable in English, such as the "a" in "about".

[Ailuo]

I always tell students that first tone is like that first "home" in the song "home on the range"

[freakyaye]

I have heard this, the word 'blue' sounds like 4th tone as it ends abruptly. I can't find where I found these in though.

[imron]

Blue?