I had a meeting today with colleagues from the Mandarin Gateway, an organisation based in Glasgow heavily involved in promoting Chinese language and culture throughout Scotland. Through the PiE project, my "day job" we're going to be involved in a number of Chinese initiatives in the coming year, starting with a Chinese language and culture summer school for students in local schools.
Anyway, after our meeting I had the chance to speak to 林凡 who helped solve something which has confused me since I first started learning Chinese.
你好 nǐ hǎo to me should have been pronounced both in 3rd tone, but any time I hear people saying 你好 it sounds as if the 你 is either a high tone or a rising tone. Today, 凡 explained that when two 3rd tone words come together, the first one is pronounced in 2nd tone, so it becomes almost ní hǎo, although it would still be written in Pinyin as nǐ hǎo.
I guess this also works for 很好 hěn hǎo because that's another phrase which sounds much more like hén hǎo!
I also found out today about 因为 / 所以 sentences:
因为我今天很忙所以我今天很累
yīn wéi wǒ jīn tiān hěn máng, sǔo yǐ wǒ jīn tiān hěn lèi
"Because I am very busy today, therefore I am very tired."
So 因为 yīn wéi is "because" and 所以 sǔo yǐ is "therefore". Once I've learned a few more adjectives I'll try to come up with some more examples.
你好,好久不见!Mark, for a long time, I haven't been seen your blog, sorry. But I'm so looking forward to the Chinese summer school in Kilmarnock from 24th July, hope all students will enjoy the lessons. see you soon, and keep going on your Chinese!
Posted by: 林凡 FAN LIN | Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 07:06 PM
I think tones of mandarin pronunciation is the most difficult part for me. My teacher in Beijing Chinese School( http://www.hellomandarin.com ) spent about 1 week explaining to me. After almost 2 months, I finally can pronounce correctly many words. I always watch CLTV ( http://cltv.hellomandarin.com ) to practice listening and practice oral Chinese with volunteers on Voice Connecting China ( http://www.hellomandarin.com/connectingchina ).
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