Post a sample of your pronunciation here!

[anonymoose]

:blink:

[renzhe]

You can only give a certain amount of plus points in a day. I'll continue tomorrow

[Shi Tong]

Calibre,

I think you're great.

A couple of small issues are probably that I reckon a couple of times you slip on tones, and a couple of times you slip on the old zh/j, Ch/c and sh/x thing- I think there's an instance where you say "shang4" and it comes out sounding a bit like "sung4" or something.

Your soft spokeness could also emphasise that the tones can be a tiny flat in general.

Though I must say you do sound very fluent and capable!!!

[calibre2001]

Hello! I'm a first year student in learning Mandarin, however, I've spent my life speaking Cantonese with my family. My tones need a bit of help, please lend some constructive criticism!

Pinyin:

Dù Qiū: Měidùn fàn zhīqián zǒngshì shuō: "Dù Qiū, xǐshǒu. Bù-xǐshǒu, bùxǔ chīfàn." Dào-le wǎnshang, "Dù Qiū, xǐjiǎo. Bù-xǐjiǎo, bùxǔ shàngchuáng."

Tóngshēng: Hēi, nà hái bù-hǎo a? Jiǎngjiu wèishēng a.

Any help is appreciated, thank you!

Wow, despite some tone issues, to my poor ears I think you hardly have a foreign accent. The bolded parts are spot on as a native would say it IMO. Good work!

[skylee]

I've given out some pluses to all the people who posted their samples. I've exceeded my quota, but I urge others to do the same.

Recording yourself is awesome and helps build a sense of community.

Could you give me a plus here ?

[Hofmann]

Nobody likes my American accent?

[Shi Tong]

I love it Hoffy

[renzhe]

Going back to what I posted one year ago:

One thing I noticed is your 3rd tone at the end of a sentence, like 一点冷 or 很好 and 关好, which sounds like a falling tone. I don't know if this is the way it is pronounced in Taiwan or something to do with your cold or the recording.

I've listened to some more Taiwanese materials, and I've actually noticed that some people tend to do this (the slow half-falling version of the third tone). I have still not heard it from Mainland speakers, and it seemed to occur with people with a noticeable Taiwanese accent. There is also the low flat third tone variation, which is very common.

It still seems to be an interference with Taiwanese Hokkien, which does not have an equivalent to the Mandarin third tone, but has a low falling third tone. So I guess that Shi Tong picked up the Taiwanese accent quite well.

It goes to show that exposure to a wide range of materials and accents is useful.

[Shi Tong]

I couldn't agree more renzhe.. actually it's been a real eye opener for myself too. I never truly knew how much erhua can "help"/"effect" language, or how many tones turn to neautrals in the mainland. I've always found it quite baffling listening to mainlanders, and just hearing the background information about how some things are said makes it easier because I understand the theory.

[rezaf]

This text is really boring and difficult to read!

无标题 (32).wma

[rezaf]

but this one in easy

无标题 (33).wma

[aristotle1990]

This is me doing that short Du Qiu thing.

[daofeishi]

This is me doing that short Du Qiu thing.

Impressive. That's not just really good pronunciation, that's got amazing expression as well. I am not able to hear that that has not been recorded by a native speaker.

It's been a while since I've had feedback on my pronunciation, so I quickly recorded the following excerpt from 小王子：

六岁那一年，我在一本描写原始森林的书里看见一幅扣人心弦的图画。那本书的书名叫做《丛林奇遇记》。图中画的是正在吞吃野兽的蟒蛇。下面是这幅画的复印件。

书中说：“蟒蛇囫囵吞下猎物，肚子撑得它不能动弹，要躺六个月才能把猎物消化掉。”

从此，我对丛林的种种奇事产生了无穷尽的遐想。我也用彩色铅笔绘下我的第一幅画。我称它为一号画。一号画如下：

我把我的杰作拿给大人看，还问他们，我的画是否吓坏了他们。他们回答我说：“一顶帽子有什么可怕的？”

我画的不是一顶帽子，而是一条正在消化大象的蟒蛇啊。我又画了一张画，画的是蟒蛇和它肚子里的大象，好让大人看懂我的画。他们总是需要我们给他们解释的。我的二号画如下：

大人们劝我，别画这些肚子没打开或打开了的蟒蛇了，把心思放到地理、历史、算术、语法上去吧。就这样，我在六岁这一年放弃了画家的光辉生涯。一号画、二号画的失败令我垂头丧气。大人们老是需要孩子们费尽唇舌，给他们再三解释，不然就一窍不通，真把我们累得够呛。

I know I still have to work on accuracy and flow, but hopefully what I'm reading is understandable :rolleyes:

Edit： Forgot to attach the mp3

xiaowangzi.mp3

[rezaf]

This is me doing that short Du Qiu thing.

This is amazing. At which age did you start learning Chinese? Did you do anything specific to learn the accent?

[aristotle1990]

Thanks -- started learning after the age of 18, have been studying for around two years now. Apart from massive listening (and that's a pretty big "apart"), I haven't done anything specific. I've always been good with accents, though; I can do what this guy does.

[rezaf]

So I guess 人外有人，天外有天 really works in this situation. You are really talented.

[daofeishi]

I've always been good with accents, though; I can do what this guy does.

What would be really entertaining is if you tried to do the same for various Chinese accents B)

[aristotle1990]

Though I have not spent enough time in China to get to know all the various regional accents well, I can do a mean Beijing accent (lived there for a while), a Taiwanese-style accent (spent a lot of time watching Taiwanese TV dramas), a Vietnamese/Thai/Laotian accent (had a bunch of Southeast Asian classmates), and a kind of lisp-y, stereotypically gay accent of my own invention. Maybe I'll do a video of my own one of these days...

[papen]

Hope everyone can help me to improve my Chinese pronounciation.

越南的春节叫做 "Tết" ，春节有3天。第一天（初一）回家，大家回家跟爸爸妈妈（父母）过春节。第二天《初二》去看爷爷奶奶和亲戚。第三天去看老师和对自己有恩的人。

sample speech 2: I try to speak faster.

Dù Qiū: Měidùn fàn zhīqián zǒngshì shuō: "Dù Qiū, xǐshǒu. Bù-xǐshǒu, bùxǔ chīfàn." Dào-le wǎnshang, "Dù Qiū, xǐjiǎo. Bù-xǐjiǎo, bùxǔ shàngchuáng."

Tóngshēng: Hēi, nà hái bù-hǎo a? Jiǎngjiu wèishēng a.

speech sample.wma

sample speech 2.wma

[hbuchtel]

Can you all tell I've been living in Changsha for the last five years?

I often get the “不看你的脸，就以为你是中国人” response, but at the same time, sometimes people complement me on my "Changsha Putonghua"...

I recorded the text from the first post (copied below). Other than the mistakes on words I don't know, generally is it obvious I've been living in the south for a while?

08年度中国最具幸福感10大城市出炉

2008年12月26日在云南昆明，揭晓了2008年度中国最具幸福感城市，其中10座城市入选，并举行了隆重的颁奖仪式。这10座城市分别是杭州 宁波 昆明 天津 唐山 佛山绍兴 长春 无锡 长沙。其中杭州由于连续五年在调查推选活动中名列前茅而获得金奖。

此次评选由新华社《瞭望东方周刊》联合中国市长协会从今年四月开始，调查内容涉及自然环境，交通状况，发展速度，文明程度，赚钱机会，医疗水平，教育水平，房价，人情味，治安状况，就业机会，生活便利共12项指标，采取专业公司调查与公共调查相结合的方式进行，近300家媒体参与，共计700万张调查问卷和 7000万次网络投票。

putonghua.mp3