Mandarin/Chinese pronunciation is the most basic thing when we start to learn it. But if you want to speak Mandarin/Chinese fluently and have a good listening ability, pronunciation is something we should put effort on it.
Based on my teaching experience, there are 8 tips that may help you to improve your pronunciation. Let’s check it out.
Tip 1 knowing what you are “saying”
When a learner has problem with “speaking”, sometimes it only because they don’t know what they are “saying”.
For example, “zh” and “ch” are two different sound in Mandarin. However, some learners don’t really sure they are pouncing “zh” or “ch”. They just pronounce randomly and hope they are lucky to say it right.
So, knowing what you are saying is the very beginning point if you want to improve you pronunciation.
Tip 2 tones
Not all the languages in the world have tones. Either have more tones than Mandarin or have no tones in their languages, try to pronounce each tone correctly and exactly are very important.
Different tones may bring different meanings. One of the very common example is “to buy” and “to sell”. When pronounce in third tone, it means to buy; when pronounce in “fourth tone”, it refers to “to sell”.
Tones do represent something in Mandarin. If you want to speak Mandarin well, don’t put tones aside.
Tip 3 tone modification
Following the 2nd point, there are some regulations about tone modification. Without these, no one can pronounce Mandarin properly.
One of the rule that all learners should know is about the 3rd tone. When there are 2 3rd tone vocabularies, the first one need to be modified as 2nd tone. Another example is “bù(不)”. When “不”+4th tone, itself will become 2nd tone as “bú”.
Familiar with those regulations will be very helpful for any learners to improve their Mandarin Pronunciation.
Tip 4 the position of your tongue
In our mouth, tongue is the only part that can “move”. When we pronounce any language, tongue always plays an important role.
For example, when we pronounce Retroflex, we must roll our tongue. In the other hands, we have keep our tongue flat. If we couldn’t identify the differences between these two, then it will be hard to enhance the accuracy in pronunciation.
Tip 5 with sound or silent
In Mandarin, when we see “bi” and “chi”, we need to know that they are under different rules.
“bi” is a combination of “b” and “I”, so the “I” here is with sound. But “chi” is not a combination sound, it is just a different way to show the symbol of “zh”.
It means that when we learn the pin-yin system, “zh” is a symbol to represent the sound. But when we mark the actual pronunciation, we need to write as “zhi”. So, the “I” here is a silent “I”, which means no sound.
Tip 6 no extra sound
When we learn a new language, we are easily to be affected by our mother language. Like if in our mother language, we always have an “a” sound in the end, then it will be very possible that we will add that “a” sound when we speak Mandarin.
In the other hand, learners may be influenced by the pin-yin system, like when we see “ang”, some learners will pronounce that “g” sound very clearly which is totally not necessary.
Tip 7 mouth shape
Anyone who want to pronounce Mandarin well need to be careful about your mouth shape.
For example, when we pronounce “zou” and “zuo”, the key point to make it right is about the mouth shape.
“zou” need to change our mouth shape from 2 sides to the middle. However, “zuo” need open our mouth shape from the central to both sides. If any one who make it in the opposite won’t be able to make people understand you. Also, if anyone only pronounce as “zo”, it still consider as incorrect.
Tip 8 air
The “air” here refers to how the air comes out from our mouth: been stopped, very smoothly, keep inside our mouth as a small ball or other different ways.
One of the very confusing sound are “z” and “c”. One of the differences between these two sounds is how the air comes out.
When we pronounce “z”, the air comes out lightly and easily. But when we pronounce “c”, the air been stopped a little and quickly spit out. That are the 8 tips for any learners who want to improve their Mandarin pronunciation skills.