Re:Beijing says 400 million Chinese cannot speak Mandarin
by gaoshan on Friday September 06, 2013 @02:55PM
(#6342028)
>However as English isn't tonal, there's a larger margin for error
True. The tones are critical in a way that can be very difficult for non-native speakers to grasp. Here are the four tones used with the words mā (mother), má (hemp), mǎ (horse) and mà (to curse) with an extra for ma indicating a question http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRkCf6Djprs.
And in that video she pronounces them far clearer than would be used in actual conversation.
True. The tones are critical in a way that can be very difficult for non-native speakers to grasp. Here are the four tones used with the words mā (mother), má (hemp), mǎ (horse) and mà (to curse) with an extra for ma indicating a question http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRkCf6Djprs.
And in that video she pronounces them far clearer than would be used in actual conversation.