when americans say "ting," does it end up sounding a little like "qing"?

[poleag]

or is this my imagination? and if you've noticed this to, how can it be corrected?

[lechuan]

It all depends. Are they americans trying to speak Chinese? Did they learn Pinyin properly?

[poleag]

yes, we're assuming they know pinyin and they are trying to say 挺 but it ends up sending a little like 请 when they produce it

[lechuan]

It could help to have them contrast the [t] (tease) and [ch] (cheese) in English, as well having them aware of what's going on with their tongue when they're making these sounds.

[Michaelyus]

Interesting that you hear Americans do this... it can be to do with the affrication that English /t/ has at the beginning of words (some people say it has an 'explosive' quality), so that [tʰ] becomes [tʰ^s], which might palatalise before /i/ in Pinyin, becoming [tʰ^ʃ] (I wouldn't say that the palatalisation is very strong in English though). However, I associate that with British English more than American. I know it is also characteristic in certain French speakers learning Mandarin through Pinyin (where the palatalisation is more evident).

[Geiko]

This is interesting... When I was 16 I spent one month in Birmingham (UK) studying English. I remember I was asked how to say "naughty boy" in Spanish, which is "chico malo" (ch sounds like ʧ , close to Chinese 'qing'). Despite repeating it a couple of times, the English person who asked me always pronounced it like "tico", t- instead of ʧ- , and I couldn't understand why, since this sound also exists in English... I even thought my pronounciation might be bad, or perhaps she had trouble in pronouncing this sound, but another classmate told me that their British hosts seemed to do the same.

[neverending]

I speak British English (with a mangled accent, mind you, as I have a few regional influences) and I occasionally say words like 挺 close to 请 - I can hear myself doing it but my tongue seems to do this naturally in fluent speech. I used to attribute it to an individual quirk but it's nice to be able to blame it on my accent!