Post a sample of your pronunciation here!

[mandarina]

I just saw the thread about the italian guy and his chinese, and I was thinking that you guys really do know how to correct someone's pronounciation.

so, i was thinking, that if anyone is interested, we could choose one article and then everybody records it and posts the audio clip, and ideally we would then share some constructive criticism concerning our pronounciation.

what do you think?

sample article:

08年度中国最具幸福感10大城市出炉

2008年12月26日在云南昆明，揭晓了2008年度中国最具幸福感城市，其中10座城市入选，并举行了隆重的颁奖仪式。这10座城市分别是杭州 宁波 昆明 天津 唐山 佛山绍兴 长春 无锡 长沙。其中杭州由于连续五年在调查推选活动中名列前茅而获得金奖。

此次评选由新华社《瞭望东方周刊》联合中国市长协会从今年四月开始，调查内容涉及自然环境，交通状况，发展速度，文明程度，赚钱机会，医疗水平，教育水平，房价，人情味，治安状况，就业机会，生活便利共12项指标，采取专业公司调查与公共调查相结合的方式进行，近300家媒体参与，共计700万张调查问卷和 7000万次网络投票。

[Gemini0603]

foreigners record it，i should be the judgement 。 LOL

[yersi]

Could you possibly have picked any drier text than that?

Here's my take on it, at least, sorry for the low volume.

[mandarina]

wov! you have a very good pronounciation, I think you got most of the tones right.

the only thing that I noticed is the pronounciation of "r", especially in the word 二, also the difference between "zhi" and "ji" should be more clear.

otherwise, i think you did a really good job. how long have you been studying?

I chose this text becuase it has a lot of fancy, newspaper words that are sort of difficult for me. it is taken from the csl pod, so I figured we could also compare it to the native speaker.

rec3.mp3

[yersi]

.

[heifeng]

Yersi:

26....what happened to your 6 and 日 here..?..they combined into a new syllable or something:mrgreen:

机会 ji1hui4

昆kun1

入ru4

杭州hang2zhou1

联合lian2he2

钱qian2

调查diao4cha2

具ju4

内容nei4rong2

mandarina:

you may want to slow it down a notch or 5...

度du4

在zai4 (yunnan kunming...)

由于you2yu2

入选ru4xuan3 (full 3)

云南yun2nan2

分别fen1bie2

佛山fo2shan1 not fou or po...whatever was said

四月si4yue..not si3

水平shui3ping2's shui seems not to drop to low enough level

获得huo4de2

十二shi2er4

新华社xin1hua2 she4

协会xie2hui4

赚钱zhuan4qian2

七千qi1 qian1

张zhang1

other: 人情味。。。 hmm i'm pretty sure you need the 儿化 here! (either that or I've just never heard it used this way w/o an 儿化)

Gemini0603:

foreigners record it，i should be the judgement 。 LOL

So...you mean judge, right Only if you read it too first so we can see where you stand with your own native 'accent':wink:

Me...ugh...ok, what the heck it's short enough. But be warned I'm sick so that either means i'm reading worse...or better:twisted:

ok,just split it into two files:

Ex_pt1.wma

Ex_pt2.wma

Edited January 17, 2009 at 09:59 AM by heifeng

[yersi]

.

[imron]

My effort. For the record, I also agree with Yersi that it's a pretty dry piece.

For future efforts, it might be nicer to choose articles from the 普通话水平测试.

See also this thread:

zuijuxingfuganchengshi.mp3

[heifeng]

Yersi: it's NOT necessarily the tones necessarily on what I listed for you, I just listed words that sounded a bit non standard....an initial or final could be a bit off too...I basically just let each recording cycle until I was dizzy and I just listed the word as I heard something a bit off~ not necessarily the tone.

It just seemed like your 2nd diaocha's cha2 around 0:56 wasn't very 饱满 if that makes sense...

I just got a little pissy on the first 2 recordings b/c everyone is just spitting out words like a machine gun so it just seemed like there were some words that would be nice to hear more clearly and fully. If you listen to the PSC stuff Imron listed the native speaker speaks quickly, BUT every word sounds very full and complete. If this is pronunciation practice we all have to slow it down a lil' bit.

yeah, my own towns are pretty wack among other things (oh no credibility will slide..) But they should be a good exercise for tone correction listening practice. Keep it coming!

Imron's recording sounds pretty standard and crisp to me w/ good speed and pauses...I can't find stuff wrong with his..only that shui sounded very very slightly like shway, but i think it's still in the acceptable range anyway...See Imron PSC stuff is fun, right?! I can tell you've been having fun with it:wink:

Edited January 17, 2009 at 06:28 PM by heifeng

[mandarina]

this is the original recording from csl pod:

csl.mp3

[renzhe]

I have to bow down to all of you.

Did you people actually rehearse this beforehand or did you just read it off the bat? Because I definitely cannot read that fluently.

Good work, everyone.

[imron]

I did a couple of practice runs to familiarise myself with it as there were a few words I wasn't 100% familiar with - plus it contains a bunch of stuff you don't often hear anyone except newsreaders saying out loud :-)

See Imron PSC stuff is fun, right?!

I'm not sure if fun is quite the right word but good for you? Absolutely.

[wannabeafreak]

I think the article was a poor choice. I hope this experiment can be re-done again with a better article being used instead.

[imron]

Feel free to suggest something Or at the very least, criteria for what constitutes a suitable article. Mandarina listed the reasons she chose the article (native speaker recording, trickier words), which are both valid reasons, although they didn't land us with the greatest article this time.

[heifeng]

My thoughts

1) I'm ok w/ the PSC stuff even though it gives me nightmares still. There is some good material out there to reference. Paragraph by paragraph, we could get through it!

2) Otherwise, I personally like to practice reading the 新京报来信 section since I get to see a) see different writing styles, and 2) see discussions on current events/trends. Plus, usually there are a few chengyu thrown in here and there AND since the authors are trying to express his or her opinion, when you read it, it doesn't seem so dry. The only bad thing is there isn't already a recording of native speaker reading it for guidance, but to me personally that's ok since on the HSK you just get a passage, read thru a few times and give it your best shot~ quick and dirty!

[mandarina]

thanks for defending my honor, imron

anyways, I know the article is a bit boring, but as I said before, it has its advantages.

ok, so maybe the next time everybody gets to chose an article and then we vote?

p.s. also what is this PSC thingie that everybody keeps talking about?

[Guoke]

deleted

[imron]

p.s. also what is this PSC thingie that everybody keeps talking about?

普通话水平测试 - Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi. It's the test native speakers take to test how standard their Putonghua is. See the above links for audio recordings, and here for transcripts.

[HerrPetersen]

I like this thread - congratulations on everyone able to read this. Maybe we can extend this thread by adding a (or mutiple) simpler text(s), so slightly above newbie-level guys like myself can join?

[imron]

Absolutely. Find an article you like that is at your level, and post it along with your recording Perhaps in a different thread just to keep discussion on separate articles separate.