Latest / bit of a Rambler / 017 Robot Question Unsure Angry
Transcript
- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,860 Hello, my name is Kai and I am a bit of a rambler. 2 00:00:04,860 --> 00:00:08,800 I like to travel, learn and tell stories. 3 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:13,840 And one of the things I like to tell a lot of people about is how to speak Mandarin, 4 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:18,440 because it seems very difficult, but it is not. 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:23,440 There is a simple form to the tones of Mandarin. 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:28,440 And Cantonese has six tones or nine tones depending on how you look at it. 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:34,720 Kai has five tones and for me is much more difficult than Mandarin Chinese. 8 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,000 Mandarin Chinese has four tones and a neutral tone. 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:43,640 So I suggest you drop the neutral tone learning because it sounds like anything, it just 10 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:47,760 whatever, however you want to pronounce it is fine because what people will be listening 11 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:56,520 for are the four tones, the flat, rising, falling, then rising, and falling tone. 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:02,040 I know that grouping of descriptions is complicated and sounds irritating to remember, but there 13 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:06,080 are tone analogs in English speech. 14 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,600 And you can use those to the same pronunciation instead. 15 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:16,080 So one, two, three, four are going to be robot question, unsure, angry, which will be 16 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:18,840 explained in just a couple minutes here. 17 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:26,400 Just like with spelling in English, if you said foam or home or loam or chrome, 18 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:32,200 the beginning, phoneme of those words all make it a different word even though the home 19 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:35,760 part is the same in all of those words. 20 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:42,880 China has the same thing, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, are different words even though the base 21 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:47,280 phoneme is ah, the tone makes it a different word each time. 22 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:51,960 This type of semantic structure may seem surprising or even counterintuitive if you haven't heard 23 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:56,240 of it before or studied it before, but it isn't that different from how English speakers 24 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,920 speak, we just have very limited tone uses. 25 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:02,320 Yes, means yes. 26 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:03,320 Yes? 27 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:05,600 Means, is that correct? 28 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:09,280 You can probably think of a hundred examples like that where just changing the tone of 29 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,720 your voice makes it very clear you're saying a different type of sentence than the words 30 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:15,200 you're using. 31 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:17,160 Do you want to go to Matt's party? 32 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:18,160 Sure. 33 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,160 Do you want to go to Matt's party? 34 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:21,640 Sure. 35 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:26,840 In that example, sure is the fourth tone falling the first time and the third tone falling 36 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,200 then rising the second time. 37 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:30,520 And with sure. 38 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:32,920 Yes, you want to go to Matt's party. 39 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:35,320 With sure. 40 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,960 The person you're talking to is immediately wondering why doesn't he want to go to Matt's 41 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:39,960 party. 42 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:47,280 So we have tones in English, we use them naturally and very commonly, but they're contextual 43 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:50,960 and not really part of the formalized English speaking system. 44 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:56,560 You've used tones before, you'll just further expand that tonal skill for the Mandarin 45 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:57,640 tones. 46 00:02:57,640 --> 00:03:02,000 With the recognition that you use tones in everyday speech, we can familiarize ourselves 47 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,680 with and demystify the Mandarin tones. 48 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:13,320 I really think the key here is to understand the tones, not as a new textbook spreadsheet 49 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:18,120 you have to study in whatever, but just to relate them to something you already know with 50 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:22,040 your use of tones in colloquial English. 51 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,960 So neutral tone, ah, it's ah, there's nothing special about it. 52 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,160 So we're going to go to the four tones. 53 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:35,800 So one, two, three, four, flat, rising, falling, then rising, falling. 54 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:40,640 Now I could probably tell you that like ten times and you would not retain it because 55 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:45,840 it's a very boring and unhelpful description of how those tones work. 56 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:52,320 It was told to me dozens of times and it never made intuitive sense to me until I came up 57 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:57,640 with this alternative tonal system, which is intuitive to native English speakers, at least 58 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,120 myself and every native English speaker I have taught it to. 59 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:06,000 And without fail, every person I met in China who tried to learn Mandarin, eventually at 60 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,760 some point asked me, how the heck do the tones work? 61 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:14,320 How long are you supposed to say the rising tone? 62 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:16,480 How long does each word last? 63 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:20,840 And several other questions about the intuitive nature of tones that all Chinese people seem 64 00:04:20,840 --> 00:04:26,320 to share that you don't really need to worry about as long as you can make the tones accurately. 65 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,920 Once you can make the tones accurately, it doesn't matter how long or short the word 66 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,360 is or whatever other thing you're thinking about. 67 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:39,360 You just have to recreate the tones accurately, which with robot question unsure angry, 68 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,600 you can do, intuitively, with tones you already know. 69 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,960 Unfortunately, nearly every single textbook you read and language class you attend with 70 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:54,080 Mandarin is going to describe them as flat rising, falling, then rising, falling. 71 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:59,360 So rather than using those descriptors, let's go over the four tones you already know 72 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:04,640 as an English speaker that you can connect to these four Mandarin tones. 73 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:06,120 One, two, three, four. 74 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,080 Ah, ah, ah, ah. 75 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:10,640 Can you say all four tones? 76 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:12,120 It's kind of difficult. 77 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,040 The first tone is robot. 78 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,160 Ah, I'm a robot. 79 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:18,960 I am a robot. 80 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:23,040 Ah, talking like a robot is the first tone. 81 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,680 The second tone is a question. 82 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:27,680 Ah, what? 83 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:29,680 No? 84 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:30,680 How? 85 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,680 Ah, that's the second tone. 86 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:36,720 Now the third is unsure. 87 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:41,400 Ah, you're falling down and then rising back up. 88 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:42,400 Sure. 89 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:44,400 I guess. 90 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,760 Ah, that's three. 91 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:49,360 You're unsure. 92 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:59,000 So robot, ah, question, ah, unsure, ah, and angry, the fourth tone. 93 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,640 Ah, the falling starts high and slower. 94 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,120 Hey, go, no. 95 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:11,360 That natural short angry exhalation where you drop your pitch on the angry word? 96 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:14,280 Ah, the fourth tone is the fourth tone in Mandarin. 97 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:18,840 Ah, robot, question, unsure, angry. 98 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:22,680 Ah, ah, ah, ah. 99 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:29,520 If someone explains to you, no, no, no, horses, ma, the third tone. 100 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:31,080 You just have to think unsure. 101 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:40,000 So unsure, ma, down up, or ma is the second tone. 102 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,800 Question, ah, ma, ma? 103 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:54,080 Oh no, ma is flat, robot, ma, ma, oh, it's angry, ma, fourth. 104 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,880 Now that doesn't mean you're going to know every word right out of the gate, but now as 105 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:03,040 soon as you know the tone of a word, you can speak that word. 106 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:08,280 Chinese speakers will understand you using that word and your brain will log it when 107 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:13,280 you speak it, and if you can speak it consistently, which is much easier with the native tonal 108 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:18,120 context in mind, then that word is going to become part of your lexicon. 109 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:20,880 Noodles is angry, the fourth tone. 110 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:21,880 Mian. 111 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:24,440 The word is mian, but that's neutral. 112 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:28,480 So you have to use the fourth tone, angry, mian. 113 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:29,480 Mian. 114 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,400 However loud or quiet you say it doesn't really matter, although I think the reason Chinese 115 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,320 people shout at each other when they speak is because it's kind of difficult to tell 116 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:41,520 the tones unless you're listening to someone say them pretty loudly. 117 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:46,160 But if you use that fourth tone, mian, then people will understand you, then you're saying 118 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:47,760 that word correctly. 119 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:52,320 And once you know that word, mian, you can do different types of mian. 120 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:57,360 See Hongshirji dan mian, or dandan mian, new romian. 121 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,320 If you can lock one word in, you can start building other words off of it. 122 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:11,120 Cool, shui, shiao, question, angry, shui, angry, shiao, shui, shiao, question, angry, rising, 123 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,920 falling, shui, shiao. 124 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,400 And those are the four tones in all of Mandarin. 125 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:23,000 So if you know the tone and you know what the phoneme is, you can pronounce it correctly. 126 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,120 Chinese speakers will understand you. 127 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:31,280 And that word will become a part of your vocabulary, especially with repeated usage. 128 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:36,160 If you can't pronounce the tone intuitively, consistently, accurately, it makes it more 129 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:41,280 difficult for your brain to register or log that word because it does mean something else 130 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:44,720 if you're using a different tone when speaking Mandarin. 131 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:49,040 But robot, question, unsure, angry. 132 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:50,240 You can do that. 133 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:54,360 A lot of teachers I hired had never spoken any Mandarin before. 134 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,880 Actually, I don't think any of them had spoken any Mandarin. 135 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:02,360 And some of them weren't very interested in studying it because it seemed so difficult, 136 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:07,000 but if you know how to pronounce all the words, it isn't that difficult. 137 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,300 And the more good Chinese food you eat and the more good Chinese friends you make, you 138 00:09:11,300 --> 00:09:14,200 want to be able to speak at least a few of the words. 139 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:21,160 So whenever a native English speaker asked me how to pronounce Mandarin, I always gave 140 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:26,320 them that rubric to start off on because the questions were always, well, okay, but if 141 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,440 number two is right next number three and like all this kind of stuff. 142 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:35,440 And there are rules that mess with which tone is spoken in which order. 143 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:38,120 But you don't really have to worry about that. 144 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:42,960 By the point you have to worry about that, you're already speaking Mandarin well enough that 145 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:44,800 everyone can understand you. 146 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:50,760 And just like other languages, I think even more so, Mandarin is highly contextual. 147 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:59,520 So, nih-hal, rising unsure, that's two three, but nih is actually three, the third tone. 148 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:04,400 It goes up to two because there's a third tone after a third tone. 149 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,000 In which case the first third tone becomes the second tone. 150 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,720 Now I know that sounds like gibberish and it's fine because you don't have to remember 151 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:10,720 it. 152 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:16,640 Because if you say nih-hal correctly to someone or nih-hal, they're going to understand 153 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:20,720 you both ways because they know that nih-hal means you're saying hello. 154 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:27,560 And you're going to learn phrases which have those correct grammar tones built into them. 155 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:29,320 She and Zai will be all right now. 156 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:33,240 I don't want you don't have to worry because everyone knows what that means. 157 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:34,800 She and Zai will be all me out. 158 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:36,600 She and Zai will be out you right now. 159 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:37,600 I don't want to right now. 160 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,280 I don't want to go to the blah. 161 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:45,840 As you learn the phrases, you're going to learn the tones correctly for those phrases. 162 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,860 So when you're saying a sentence, I wouldn't worry so much about making sure every single 163 00:10:50,860 --> 00:10:56,480 grammar tone corresponds exactly correctly to every other grammar tone. 164 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:01,040 Unless you enjoy studying that stuff or for whatever reason that helps you more to know 165 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:05,080 that pattern correctly in the beginning. 166 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:10,120 Over and over what I've seen is it's much easier for people to get a grasp of Mandarin 167 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:15,640 and Chinese languages in general by making familiar the unfamiliar. 168 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:21,880 So, I really think that if you are having trouble saying your first words of Mandarin or you're 169 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:25,480 in China right now and you're like, "Okay, I get it. 170 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:27,520 E sheng are sheng the different tones. 171 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:29,640 But like how the heck do you remember them?" 172 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:36,000 If you can make the word familiar to your mouth making that sound, then you will remember them. 173 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,120 "Xiu e sheng. 174 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:39,120 Student. 175 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:40,120 Xu e sheng. 176 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:41,120 Xu e. 177 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:42,120 Xu e. 178 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:43,120 Study. 179 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:44,120 Xu e sheng." 180 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,320 Now, my Mandarin is far from perfect. 181 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:52,800 I was pretty good at it in my heyday and now I can stumble through a conversation with 182 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:54,760 a Mandarin speaker. 183 00:11:54,760 --> 00:12:01,680 But knowing these four tones as familiar tones as normal context-rich sounds that my 184 00:12:01,680 --> 00:12:07,440 brain intuitively understands from English made them instantly recognizable words and 185 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,240 easy to record in my brain. 186 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:15,840 And other people seemed to have the same result when they changed one, two, three, four rising 187 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:22,320 flat, falling over rava into robot question, unsure, angry. 188 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:27,920 If you know the process by which you make these words, by which you pronounce these words, 189 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:30,320 then you know the words. 190 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:33,680 And importantly, other people will understand you. 191 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:39,600 When I started using robot question, unsure, angry, people started understanding the words 192 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:40,960 I was saying. 193 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:48,480 When I was trying to do the third tone as falling, then rising, I never got it correct. 194 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:56,520 But when I realized it was the same as sure, then I realized that ma means horse. 195 00:12:56,520 --> 00:13:00,920 And other people understood my uh, as well. 196 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:07,000 Up until that point, I was trying to figure out the timing and like how long each half of a 197 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:11,000 word should be and it was just this nightmare. 198 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,040 But there are corresponding sounds that native English speakers use. 199 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:16,840 We can go get pizza. 200 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:20,400 Yeah, unsure. 201 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:24,960 So when you're studying vocabulary and you see one of those tonal marks telling you which 202 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:29,520 one to go for, one, two, three, four, you have it. 203 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:35,080 Like don't get confused by any of those lines above the letters anymore. 204 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,960 If you see the lines, that means you know how to say this. 205 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:50,040 PI, P, one, two, three, four, P, P, P, P. Robot question, unsure, angry. 206 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:58,920 Now question is important here because PGO, question, unsure, PGO is beer. 207 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,480 And we all have to learn the word for beer. 208 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:03,480 Thank you for listening. 209 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:07,600 I hope this all makes the Mandarin tones make a little more sense. 210 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:12,120 If you have any questions, shoot them over to bit of a rambler@gmail.com. 211 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,800 Have a Chinese beer or two and I will catch you on the flip flop. 212 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:20,240 But you know, let's send you off with a few famous Chinese beers. 213 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:24,920 There's Qingdao from Qingdao. 214 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:29,360 There's Shuahua, which I got real into. 215 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:41,480 Here's the original Yanjing beer, Yanjing PGO and Harbin, Harbin, Harbin PGO. 216 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:47,640 So if you find Qingdao, Shuahua, Yanjing or Harbin, have a couple polls. 217 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:49,960 They are types of beer. 218 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:59,960 [BLANK_AUDIO]