learning the tones for free

[Cavesa]

Hi,

I am new around here and had written a looong post with many questions which disappeared and wasn't posted. So, I am taking these one by one now. (and always hit ctrlA and ctrlC before the "post" button, I learnt my lesson).

I would like to learn Mandarin but I don't have that much time now and I am not sure yet. I would like to explore the ground first (expect a few questions in the culture subforums :-) ) and learn the tones as they are one of the largest beginner obstacles.

As I am a student, I don't want to spend much money on learning until I decide I really want to dive in. I downloaded some courses but I really prefer paper versions of what I use a lot.

I have tried this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/games/tones.shtml and I was surprised I could hear the differences in all the examples (some at second or third try, true) and I could mimic many of them really well considering it was my first attempt. However, there are just a few words and I need more examples. Would you know of other such sites with pinyin and audio? Characters, no matter whether simplified or traditional, are not important at this point. I would just like to try whether I can learn the tones.

I could as well do with a good app as I have got an ipad. I got two charts where I can listen to any syllable of the Mandarin language with any tone. But there are no words. Would you know of a solution?

Thanks a lot in advance.

P.S. Thanks for such awesome forums. A trully great source of information with high culture of communication and respect towards each other. I read you have recently had a tenth anniversary. Congratulations!

P.S.2 How can people speak fast with the tones? I was happy to mimic single syllables slowly :-D

[lechuan]

Try these out:

http://www.sinosplice.com/learn-chinese/tone-pair-drills

Also, when you speak English, you're also using tones, just in a different way (from "Learning To Write Chinese

Characters”, by Johan Bjorksten"):

1st Tone

The first tone is level, like the tone of the second syllable of tadaa!

Someone whisking the drape off the new painting or announcing, with a

flourish, the opening of the school play might say tadaa!

2nd Tone

The second tone is rising, like the tone of the surprised question: What?

3rd Tone

The third tone goes down and then up, just like the irritated and somewhat

exaggerated tone used on “So” in the following context: “You

haven’t given me any reason to do it.” “So? Do it anyway.”

4th Tone

The fourth tone is a falling tone that sounds like the tone on hey in

“Hey! You there!”

[Cavesa]

Thanks, that looks great. I'll definitely try it. I have as well found http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm link on this forum so it looks like I got a lot to play with :-)

And the English example is totally awesome, thanks.

I'll probably need to read the rules of pinyin pronunciation as well. I am relying on the audio so I realised really soon that sometimes the latin letter corresponds to a totally different sound than in the languages I already know. I heard a lot of good about the FSI Mandarin, especially the pronunciation drills. Have you tried? Or do you have another free source? I would go for wikipedia but I doubt there will be audio as well.

[Lu]

I'll probably need to read the rules of pinyin pronunciation as well.

Yes, this is important. Pinyin is its own system, not the same as the way other languages use the alphabet. Take some time to learn the pronunciation of all the letters (and combinations) in pinyin before you move on to learn actual words. I can't recommend any online sources I'm afraid, I learned it from a little paper booklet.

[Cavesa]

Yes, I'll surely do that before considering any other step. So far, when the audio differed from what I expected from the letters, I just followed the sound and ignored the text for now.

I had experienced some mistakes in approach to learning pronunciation in past, both on my side and on side of a teacher, so I'd like to avoid similar ones here. Is Pinyin rather phonetic or is it more irregular, like English for example? If I learn the rules and pronunciation of every syllable, will I be able to read correctly any word (after few tries) or will I encounter exceptions?

I am asking about the words just to get more examples to observe and mimic. I'll have enough time to remember any words later, if I find I really want to dive in.

[lechuan]

Pinyin is completely phonetic. Meaning that each combination (syllable) is always pronounced the same. However, sometimes the individual letters are different in different combinations, so you'll have to memorize each combination (ie. the "u" in "shu" and "xu" is pronounced differently, but "shu" and "xu" never changes their respective pronciations when in combination with other pinyin syllables).

This is probably the best resource I have found for learning pinyin:

http://www.coursesma...p/9780071627368

I linked to that site in particular because amazon/mcgraw-hill all have the wrong book cover picture.