Speak Chinese Clearly
How to Pronounce Chinese right!
Pronunciations of the Chinese language are distinctly different from English. Do not, therefore, worry if you sound a bit odd the first time.
Do your very best. Speak in a manner as close to the native speakers as you can possibly manage. You'll get better as you go along, when you have listened and spoken more.
A good way to ensure that you get the pronunciation right is to master the Chinese phonetics. If you can get the sounds and tones right before you enunciate the words you learn, the quality of your speech will be very different.
The most widely used phonetic notation for Chinese Mandarin is hanyu pinyin. Learn every sound of the chinese pinyin. Pay attention to the unfamiliar sounds. This will help you to be more focused, and speed up the learning process.
Go through the free video tutorial A General Guide to Pinyin to acquire a preliminary understanding of the sounds.
In addition, pay attention to the Chinese tones. Chinese is a tonal language, and a change of tone and change the meaning of a syllable altogether, and you cannot be too careful.
A word of caution: do not assume that all native Chinese speak good Mandarin. Many of them are more conversant in their dialects and speak with a strong dialect accent.
Read more about learning Chinese.
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