My teacher asked me if I think she should start speaking more quickly

[suMMit]

We currently study together online 3 times a week, starting a few months ago. We follow a book and work through the speaking drills and activities, and expand on them a bit. I like the lessons with her a lot. She's very strict with tones and grammar - I love this. Any mistake in either department, I have to say the whole sentence again correctly. She speaks slowly and deliberately, much more slowly and clearly than people I talk to in real life. 

 

Last lesson, with no prompting from me, she asked if I think she should speak faster. I told her I'm happy with the lessons as they are, but I will think about it. I'd like to know others opinions on how the teacher should speak, keeping in mind I'm still pretty low level (i.e. last class we were working on sentences like 我们下个星期一可以到山上去， 他的孩子明年打算去美国结婚。

[889]

I really think that from Day One your teacher should speak naturally. Simple language, clearly pronounced, but at normal speed.

 

Remember, you don't have to understand everything. A good classroom teacher will always be chatting away just to help the class to become accustomed to the sounds of the language, knowing full well that the students aren't grasping everything.

 

Indeed, you'll study for years and you still won't understand every word everyone says. An important part of learning Chinese -- any language really -- is developing a knack for quickly grasping the meaning without trying to catch every word.

[Dlezcano]

Let her just talk normally, just not too fast. At the beginning you will tell her many times 请再说一遍, but if she uses the words and grammar you have learned, sooner or later you will start understanding it. Maybe both will feel a little frustrated if you can´t understand her well it, but it´s a natural part of learning a language.

[Flickserve]

For any of us at low levels of language skills, I think it is only natural that people speak more slowly to us. Given that your relationship with your teacher is pretty close, she's judged your capabilities and thinks you are ready to make the next stage forward. Maybe not totally native speed but faster. She can always drop the speed back down.

[OneEye]

16 hours ago, 889 said:

I really think that from Day One your teacher should speak naturally. Simple language, clearly pronounced, but at normal speed.

 

 

In our pronunciation course I call this "aiming at the target." It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but you should always prioritize imitating authentic, natural speech. Unnaturally slowing things down isn't doing you any favors, even though it may make things seem easier.

[suMMit]

 

 

I had originally been thinking the slow speech was good for my pronunciation, but yeah, I agree with all these responses. Listening is no issue, I understand 98% percent of what she says. I asked to go ahead and speed up, she agreed. I would say in our lesson today she didn't really speed up though. It might be ingrained in her teaching style.

 

Edited November 15, 2019 at 02:12 PM by suMMit
I removed that audio as I think it was too extreme an example

[Shelley]

I don't know how to say this without it being taken the wrong way so I am just going to say it.  - That voice would drive me nuts. It sounds like a machine talking. I would definitely ask her to speak normally and at a normal speed.

[Dawei3]

The recording gives much insight:  yes, I would agreed that it's too slow (and artificial).  

 

I also wonder what is lost if a person always speaks Chinese in an artificially slow or very distinct manner.  In English, a person would lose the chance to develop natural speech.

 

A person who teaches accent reduction in the US taught me about the problems of teaching people "clearly spoken" English, i.e., the learner will likely not sound natural.  E.g., Americans rarely say "thank you", we usually say "than kyou."  Not "each other" but "ea chother".  A person who says "thank you" and "each other" and a myriad of other examples can sound staccato & not natural (except in certain situations). 

 

I wonder if a similar situation can happen in Chinese?  (i.e., do spoken Chinese words get re-bracketed as in English?)  I was unaware of the re-bracketing in English until it was pointed out to me (but I'm also not an English teacher).  

 

(re-bracketing is not a new phenomenon in English.  E.g., the word "alone" was originally "all one."  The nickname of "Ned" for Ed was a re-bracketing of meine Ed).  

[suMMit]

i guess she doesnt always speak as slow and emphasized as THAT, (its the only recording i have) but yes its always unnaturally slow. Ive asked her again to speak more quickly/natually in the lessons, so I'll see if she can adjust it. Because othwise her methodology is very good.

[Flickserve]

Good point. I have an awful time trying to get native speakers repeat exactly what they said. They go back into standard mandarin. 
 

I even played a recording back to a teacher and asked her to say the exactly the same thing. She didn’t and used standard mandarin pronunciation. Then I asked why they recording said such and such (I did the imitation). She said, “ ohhh you shouldn’t learn this. No no no. It’s not good”

 

Here is me thinking if I don’t learn how the standard mandarin changes like this in normal speech, how the heck am I am supposed understand Native Chinese speakers......
 

BTW, from the examples given , I put my level above @suMMit

 

I also place a lot of emphasis on 语感 which is why I don’t like reading out loud (at this stage) and prefer to copy people’s speech pattern. If I do this, native Chinese speakers will say “你说得很好” as opposed to “你说得很标准 “. What are other people’s experiences? 
 

BTW this is why I like to talk to community tutors on italki. 

[889]

The only time a teacher should use that approach is when she's working with you on the pronunciation of individual words and characters. Sentences, no.

 

[suMMit]

Reasonable speed (from tonights lesson)？

teacher2.wav

[Shelley]

That sounds much better, more natural, possibly she is still conscious of you being a learner and is trying to be clear for you. I think that it is a good balance.

[Dawei3]

9 hours ago, Flickserve said:

“你说得很好” as opposed to “你说得很标准 

Another response when you speak naturally is "你的中文很自然."   In my experience, this is a true compliment (or just an observation) as a opposed to a shallow compliment to encourage you. 

 

9 hours ago, Flickserve said:

Here is me thinking if I don’t learn how the standard mandarin changes like this in normal speech, how the heck am I am supposed understand Native Chinese speakers

Exactly.  This is also one of the values of learning full sentences instead of memorizing words.  Learning a full sentence can give you a sense of the cadence & rhythm of the language.  

 

One thing that can help you is ask her speak at a natural speed, but to add pauses between sentences that you'll likely not know (i.e., if you're having a conversation as opposed to learning a specific sentence).  If I'm talking with someone and I miss their 1st sentence, I'll be thinking about that sentence while they say sentence 2, 3 & 4 and as result, miss all of it.  Pauses helps with this.  

 

 

 

 

[Lu]

11 hours ago, suMMit said:

Reasonable speed (from tonights lesson)?

This is still slower and more clearly than people (including teacher herself, I bet) would speak in real life, but it is more natural than the first recording.

 

See if you have other Chinese people who are not teachers to talk to you in real life, so you can see what that is like. Or watch some Chinese tv series.

 

I don't think a teacher should speak at normal, full speed from lesson 1. The student will be completely (or almost completely) lost and nobody wants that. Almost all the things a person learns are first done slowly and deliberately, until the learner gets the hang of it, and then you can speed up. If someone would teach you how to knit, they don't do that by knitting at full speed in the hopes that you'll just pick up what they are doing - they'd start by slowly showing and explaining every step of one stitch, and the next stitch, until you get some routine. If you want to learn that sentence about spitting out grape skins or how four is four, ten is ten and fourty-four is fourty-four, you start by saying it slowly until you can speed up. Same for listening practice: start slow, then increase speed.