About the Chinese Language

zhongwen zhong wen, Joe+ng one, Chinese

Chinese is as about as far from English as any language could be. Yet China has tried their best to make it accessible for foreigners with their pinyin system. Literally (Spell sound) system. It works quite well once it is mastered, but it is far from simple. For example, how do you pronounce, ci, xie, xiao, zheng, qin?

My pronunciation guide

This guide is unique to me. It is useful in that if you can speak English you can be understood in Chinese. There are only a few simple rules you need to remember.

  1. Each Chinese character is only one syllable. A single sound. When I can represent the sound with an English word I do so. Example: pinyin is du, pronounced like the English dew.
  2. Chinese words don't usually end in a hard consonant. So, to represent the sound I will use an English word and put the ending in parentheses. Read the word without pronouncing the letterss in parentheses and you will have made the correct sound. Example: shou(t), You would read it shout less the t.
  3. Other times I need to combine sounds to make the proper Chinese pronunciation. Example: Foo+woe. Combine the two sounds together to make one.
  4. If you have any question on how to my pronunciation guide just view the video

A note on tones. The Chinese language has a limited number of sounds. Therefore they use tones to differentiate between homonyms. (Words that sound the same.) We have the same thing in English. Example: to, two, too. From the context we know which word is being spoken. Chinese is the same. If the goal is communication, rather than perfection. Ignore the tones, use my guide for pronunciation and you will be communicating in Chinese immediately. Not perfectly perhaps, but effectively.

 

Under each video are three types of text. There is the pronunciation guide which I suggest for people who want to communicate quickly without the hassle of learning new sounds for the letters of our alphabet. I also have included Chinese pinyin so you can see how the Chinese spell their language using our alphabet. And of course there is the English translation.

 

xiexie Xie Xie. She(d) She(d)