[Absolute Beginner] Correct Pronunciation

[li3wei1]

What you do need to worry about is the order and direction in which you write them, because as you speed up and the strokes start to join up and blend into each other, they'll look wrong if they're in the wrong order.

[zeroByte]

How shall I pronounce the "ang" in "qiang"? My book states that "eng" is pronounced like an "ung" but deep in the mouth. "ia" is pronounced like "ie" where "e" is like the european variant. If I put all this together, I end up with something like "qiung". However, dict.leo.org tells me it should sound like "qiang" without any changes. What's the "right" way?

My books assumes all the time that I can read chinese characters I'm not supposed to learn. That means I have to put them in clozes and recognize them when I read. I have problems recognizing characters I have not learned to write before.

Is it a required ability to be capable of working with "new" characters just right off the cuff?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

[imron]

You shouldn't be asking how to pronounce 'ang' you should be asking how to pronounce 'iang'. Pinyin syllables are split into 'initials' and 'finals' and the final here is 'iang'. Once you realise that, the answer is then simple. You pronounce it exactly as you would 'yang'.

[zeroByte]

Oh thanks - theoretically I already know that. I'm just no yet used to think in terms of it ;)

[zeroByte]

1) 父 (fù) and 爸爸 (bàba) how do those words differ from each other?

2) 小姐 (xiao3jie3) and 且 << the latter translates to "even" in the meaning of "he even dismissed [...]" according to my book (while nciku.com doesn't list this meaning). I'm a bit confused that one symbol is used in different contexts having a different meaning - is this common (and if: why) or just a peculiarity of this vocabulary/my book's translation?

Regards,

[zeroByte]

(Just to precede the following: I'm feeling dumb already )

Substitution practice

A: shei2 shi4 ma xiao3jie3 ?

B: ta shi4 ma xiao3jie3.

A: ma xiao3jie3 jiao4 shen2me ming2zi?

B: ma xiao3jie jiao4 [forgotten] wen2.

My english translation:

A: Who's ... ?

B: That's ....

A: What's the name of ... ?

B: The name of .... is ....

The box with expressions to employ:

pian2 yi1sheng1

Zhang1 lao3shi1

Mr. White

pian2 ren2 zhong1

Zhang1 qing3 sheng1

bai2 ke3 bei4

Is this solely about plugging in Who's Zhang, this is zhang, what's his full name, that's Zhang qing sheng? Somehow I feel there must be more? (The full exercise is longer than a full page.)

Regards,

[zeroByte]

I skipped the first course in chinese at university, stepping directly into the second one. They were using different learning material at that time (another book), however It was quite easy to adapt (biggest issue: other speakers ;D ).

I remembered this topic and got excited about my own recordings; it's really funny listening to my first attempts at this point

In the meantime I've got to have fun by just browsing nciku; I guess the fun grows exponentially with your knowledge. I'm looking forward to more ;-)

I just wanted to thank you for the extensive knowledge and material you provided; it did give me a very good starting indeed.

Regards,

[imron]

Thanks for the follow up. Where are the follow up recordings?