accent neutralization for Chinese speaking

[Jamuna]

Hello All,

 

I'm from India and I study in Zhejiang University.

 

My teacher says my grammar, writing and reading are good but my tones and pronunciation are bad. Can you all tell me on how to practice tones? And teacher says I have the my mother tongue influence when I speak. How to rectify it??

 

Also I know lot of words but when I speak I end up using only very basic conversation words. Help me out guys..

 

Share me your practice tips and tricks.. My semester exams are to begin in another 6 weeks or so..  

 

Thanks in advance!!

[dementior]

Hi,

 

 

1. Hire a tutor (or language exachange with a native) and practice conversation, do not worry about grammar or other things just ask to be corrected every time you make mistakes. Read aloud texts while this person listens to you. First focus on words, then try to get the flow of the whole sentence and intonation. Start slow do not worry about speed.

 

Get every single sound right first and drill with the tutor or by yourself. Then move to two tones combination.

 

2. Buy graded stories that come with MP3. Listen to them over and over again, and then mock their pronunciation recording your own voice. And listen to it and compare both.

 

 

[889]

Yes, you need a tutor to work with you solely on speaking. But choose someone trained in the skill. Remember that just because someone’s a native English speaker doesn’t mean they can teach a foreigner to say "bray" and "pray" or "tin" and "din" correctly. Same for teaching Chinese. You need someone who not only recognises your mistakes, but can also teach you how to correct them.

It’s also good to choose someone whose voice you feel comfortable imitating.

[OneEye]

Most importantly: listen, listen, listen. Record yourself and compare with native speakers. Even better, record yourself speaking in unison with native speakers so you can hear exactly where and how you differ and fix it. Your ears are your most important asset when it comes to accent reduction. You can't imitate something accurately unless you're intimately familiar with how it actually sounds, and to get that way, you have to listen very closely and a lot.

[anonymoose]

Apart from the suggestions above, also practise saying multisyllabic words and phrases by yourself, and exaggerate the tones (being sure to get them correct). This way you can build up a bit of muscle memory for enunciating the tones.

[hedwards]

For the tones take a look at http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2008/01/21/seeing-the-tones-of-mandarin-chinese-with-praat , that should do wonders for your tones.

 

As far as the syllables go, there are only about 400 or so of them which are combined with those tones. With 6 weeks to go, that means focusing on about 10 per day, which is probably too many, but I'm guessing that some of the syllables are better than others, I'd recommend focusing on the worst ones first if possible.

 

Personally, I tend to focus on one pronunciation problem at a time until I've mostly gotten it sorted out. Unfortunately, you likely don't have that luxury with the time schedule you're on.

[Hofmann]

Understanding Mandarin syllable structure goes a long way. Read this.