Comments on: The tones in Mandarin are more important than you think

By: Tone errors in Mandarin that actually can cause misunderstandings - Hacking Chinese

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 09:46:38 +0000

[…] Tones are of course important. Every mistake makes it harder for people to understand what you say, and tone mistakes are very common. Still, I think it’s important to be realistic about how tones work and what problems they can cause if you don’t learn them properly. Someone being confused about why you thought the chest hair was cute is not among them. […]

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Thu, 09 May 2019 19:23:43 +0000

In reply to Conrad. I can't make a video, at least not right now, but perhaps this article helps. The third tone is usually gravely misunderstood by students, mostly because it's badly taught: Learning the third tone in Chinese

By: Conrad

Conrad — Thu, 09 May 2019 05:25:00 +0000

In reply to Sara K.. These sounds can be easily mastered using phonetics. If the IPA and "vocal tract" aren't things that you're intimately familiar with yet, you're really missing out.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Thu, 09 May 2019 05:22:05 +0000

I have spent three weeks learning tones, and the other three came pretty quickly, but even after speaking with natives, practicing pitch in singing lessons, and practicing for weeks, I have made absolutely zero progress on the third tone. What people like me need is a video explaining how the human body makes that tone…including muscles in the throat, body cavities and resonators, etc., so that we can learn HOW to make that sound…physically. Simply listening to it over and over and over and trying to say it over and over and over doesn’t help some of us.

By: Language as a Whole – Psychology of Language Blog

Language as a Whole – Psychology of Language Blog — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 22:07:03 +0000

[…] a joke. In Chinese the pitch in your voice can change the entire sentence. The example in this website says to give a cab drive directions in the wrong tone. It can completely throw off where they […]

By: Colin McLarty

Colin McLarty — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 02:10:55 +0000

Anyone who tries to say tones are not important, on the grounds that native speakers often minimize them, especially in rapid speech, should think about hand motions in sign language. Expert signers, especially those deaf from birth, often use hand motions so slight that most outsiders can hardly tell what the motions are at all let alone recognize the sign. But they are moving their hands! Rather than conclude that hand motion is irrelevant to sign language, you should conclude that expert users can recognize cues from one another than the less expert do not recognize.

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 12:40:59 +0000

In reply to Rafał. In Anki: Install Chinese support. In general: Use this website.

By: Rafał

Rafał — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 12:13:37 +0000

I have a really important question here – how do I input the tones using my normal keyboard? I’m doing the flashcards for Anki right now and I want to write full tones, not the system with syllabe+number, that indicates tones. Thanks!

By: Tones in Chinese: Get them Right to be Understood

Tones in Chinese: Get them Right to be Understood — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:00:50 +0000

[…] you don’t get the tones right, it is likely that people won’t understand what you say. (check Hacking Chinese for the whole […]

By: Learn by exaggerating: Slow, then fast; big, then small | Hacking Chinese

Learn by exaggerating: Slow, then fast; big, then small | Hacking Chinese — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:27:32 +0000

[…] the time it takes you to learn Chinese (this isn’t the topic of this article, though, but please read my article about the importance of tones for more about this). Going for speed from the very start is simply not a very good […]