Introduction

Let’s address the first issue. It is important to be mindful and practice through the lesson.

Chinese is a tonal language. This doesn’t only mean that words are made of various tones, it also means that the meaning of the worlds relies on specific tones and inflections.

In English, which many people consider it non-tonal language, tones do exist. However, they are not of primary concern, because the meanings of the words do not depend on their various tones, but their vowel sounds. In theory, the same tones can be used to visually represent syllables that make up the words in non-tonal languages.

Your first challenge in learning to speak Mandarin Chinese will be learning the tonal variations, The chat below illustrates 4 tones (plus a “neutral” one) of a Chinese syllable.

Many second language instructions tell you to listen carefully, which is a logical approach. However, learning to speak proficient Mandarin Chinese requires learning both the pronunciation and the tonal inflection. Let’s practice the following sentences with and without tonal inflections:

Wo zai xue zhong wen --> Wǒ zài xué zhōng-wén

Wo yao xue hao zhong wen --> Wǒ yào xué hǎo zhōng-wén

Imagine the effort in trying to read an entire sentence by pronouncing each individual letter. Even if your are great at pronunciation and people can understand you, it still sounds like a “robotic voice” to native speakers. In order to speak understandable Mandarin Chinese, we need to put more emphasis on the tones and reinforce them with “tone pair drills”. Within the “tone pair drills”, the sentence of the phrase would vary depending on the choice of tone in the words.

• The first tone (ā): The voice is more flat with high ripple sound.
• The second tone (á): With a rising mark. The voice starts high and then rises. 
• The third tone (ǎ): With a curve mark. The voice falls first and then rises.
• The forth tone (à): The voice starts high and falls.

For example:

Mā       媽        mother

Má       麻        hemp

Mǎ       馬        horse

Mà       罵        scold

Tone pair drills basically involve practicing tones in combination rather than individually to show the relationship between subjects and objects. Here are some reason why tone pair drills are important:

(1)  They force you to notice the distinctions between tones, so you do not mix them up and cause confusion.

(2)  Tone pair drills are a natural intermediate step to learn complete understandable Chinese.

(3)  The challenge for Chinese tones is that they are not static. They are dynamic and change based on the sequence of tones.

For example:

睡覺      shuì jiào     means "sleep"

水餃      shuǐ jiǎo     means "dumplings"

一些      yì xiē          means "a few"

一直      yì zhí          means "continue; straight ahead"

一點      yì diǎn        means "a little"

一定      yí dìng        means "certain"

不好      bù hǎo        means "not good"

不謝      bú xiè         means "don’t mention it"

Tips on learning Mandarin Chinese tones:

As we know the simple approach for learning a second language is to simply start a word, phase, or simple sentence and then move forward towards its complete components. Based on my experience, here are some suggestions alongside the lesson.

(1)  To reinforce the 5 tones in speaking Mandarin Chinese, we need to stress them greatly even with the head or hand gestures. It also exactly how teachers guide students to learn in China and Taiwan.

(2)  Take special care in differentiating retroflex consonants (such as zh, ch, shi) from normal ones (z, j, s) and aspirated (p, t) from non-aspirated ones (b, d).

(3)  Once you having a general understanding of Chinese phonetics, start considering simple sentences and listening to them with your eyes closed.

(4)  With completed sentences, pay attention on the tone pair drills and understand the position for emphasis.