Post a sample of your pronunciation here!

[imron 4,927]

I've heard that version too, but google gave the 就怕 version more hits, so that's the one I went with.

[889 1,302]

Should I spoil the joke and tell him what's usually there instead of 广东人?

[imron 4,927]

I'm not sure which sentence came first - the one with 广东人 or the one I know you're thinking of.  I've definitely heard the 广东人 version spoken by native speakers more.

[suMMit 85]

the suspense is building

[889 1,302]

Does ygz mean anything to you? Googling gives a book from 1978 using that term in the expression.

[imron 4,927]

1 hour ago, 889 said:

Does ygz mean anything to you?

Yes it does, however, 广东人 is still the main version I've heard.

 

Google books gives an example from 1948 that uses 广东人, and another one from a book of proverbs from 1962.

[889 1,302]

My comment was meant for suMMit: I didn't want the suspense to overtake him.

 

In any event, there seem to be versions of this around targeting all sorts of peoples. Perhaps with enough time and resources we could trace it back to some classical antecedent.

[Flickserve 814]

3 hours ago, suMMit said:

the suspense is building

 

You can always ask a guangdong native the other versions.

[suMMit 85]

Continue working on my pronunciation. This is an exchange written in English which I then said in Chinese. Any feedback welcome.

 

https://clyp.it/sg0c4jhr

 

你有时间吗.wav

[Tomsima 780]

@suMMit All your tones are on point, nothing wrong here. Need to now work on getting the emphasis on the right parts of the sentence and it'll help you sound more natural and less robotic. One 行 sounds a bit like 'shing', and similarly the 商 in 商场 came out sounding a bit too close too 'xiang'. You can pick up your foreign accent in the 'zhi chi shi' group, but its not wrong and not really important, just thought it would be good for reference (I also have trouble with this group of sounds too) 

[suMMit 85]

@Tomsima 'Need to now work on getting the emphasis on the right parts of the sentence and it'll help you sound more natural and less robotic'

 

indeed, this is my struggle...

[Tomsima 780]

4 hours ago, suMMit said:

this is my struggle

pretty sure this is everyones struggle, takes years. Two things I could recommend from my own experience is shadowing mass sentences and reading lots of books aloud. The former is good for internalising rhythmns, the latter is good for forcing your brain to sound out the emphasis of a sentence based on comprehension. You will quickly get a feel of how to express the different meanings of say 他是我的朋友 and 他是我的朋友 by actually voicing out sentences over and over. I spent months reading the defrancis readers out loud and it made a massive difference for me.

[suMMit 85]

11 hours ago, Tomsima said:

You will quickly get a feel of how to express the different meanings of say 他是我的朋友 and 他是我的朋友

 

Tomsima, this was really helpful, about the word stress. I was doing an exercise this morning and the dialog was: 

 

a: 李老师什么时候给我们上课

b: 李老师下个月给我们上课

 

The 下个月was very clearly emphasized, but honestly I don't think i've been taking much notice to that aspect. There were many other similar instances in todays dialogs as well. Cheers!