Mandarin – Perfect Leaves

Chinese Pronunciation Guide

I’ve already written a couple of posts for people who’d like to learn Mandarin so I’ll link those below. This post is just a basic guide to help people better pronounce the names of the teas I write about.

The pronunciation system in Mandarin is called pinyin. The word pinyin is actually an amalgamation of the words for “spell” and “sound.” To help Mandarin learners better visualize the sounds combinations, educators have created a pinyin chart.

Image of a pinyin chart — A typical pinyin chart

The Pinyin Chart is organized based on where in the mouth the sound is produced. For example, ‘b’,’p’,’m’ and ‘f’ all rely on movement of the lips while ‘d’,’t’,’n’,’l’ are all produced by cupping the tongue against the roof of the mouth (the hard palate).

Drawn image of a labeled human mouth — The areas of the mouth we use to produce vowels and consonants. Source: duolingo

Looking at the chart itself is not very helpful, but once you’ve learned the basic rules of pronunciation, it helps to look at the chart and practice the different sounds combinations. Some of the phonemes are very rare. There are a couple on the chart that I’ve never used before. For people who are learning to type Mandarin, pinyin is helpful because these letter combinations will bring up the characters you want to type. For instance, typing “da” will bring up 大 (big). This chart does not take tones into account (there are four main tones in Mandarin) but this post is not intended to be a crash course in Mandarin; I’m writing it to help people with an interest in tea speak knowledgeable about what they’re drinking.

Yabla Chinese, one of my favorite online Chinese dictionaries, has a free resource that allows people to listen to the pinyin chart.

Yabla Audio Pinyin Chart

Mandarin speakers don’t move their lips very much. Instead, most of the sound comes from moving the tongue and changing the space within their mouths. A few of the sounds do not exist in English, and one must be careful when pronouncing them. The ‘q’ sound is similar to “ch” in English, but instead of laying the tongue flat against the roof of the mouth, one should curve the tongue and make a little space behind the teeth. ‘J’, ‘q’ and ‘x’ all use similar tongue placement. ‘Zh’, ‘ch’ and ‘sh’ all for a flattening of the tongue and mouth. ‘Z’, ‘c’ and ‘s’ are produced by flattening the tongue and mouth while creating a little space with the tongue behind the teeth.

One way to make sure you are pronouncing the words correctly is to abandon everything you know about English or your native language. Though there may be some similarities, it’s better to start from scratch and really listen to the vowel and consonant sounds. The Yabla pinyin chart should help. I’ve embedded a video below that demonstrates the pronunciation of a few tricky syllables.

I don’t really have a magic formula for learning a new language system. All I can say it practice makes perfect. 😀

Intermediate & Advanced Mandarin Resources

大家好！

You’ve taken the plunge into learning Mandarin and have decided to continue. It was no easy task, but you’ve grasped the concepts of pinyin, radicals, and characters. I salute you. If you haven’t started yet and you came here looking for suggestions, try my post on resources for Mandarin beginners.

For those who are ready to take their Mandarin to the next level, I have a treat for you. Here are the intermediate and advanced Mandarin resources I’ve come across over the years. I’m including links to amazon in the post simply because I find it easiest to find books there. Amazon is not paying me for the reviews, but the advertisements do help keep this blog running.

Graded Chinese Reader Series by Shi Ji

The Graded Chinese Reader is excellent for people who may not be the most comfortable reading Chinese, but are willing to give it a shot. There are six books, ranging from 500 words to 3000 words. Each new book feels like leveling up in a video game, and you can jump in at any point because the books are a collection of short stories. The books are written in simplified characters, and there is pinyin on top of the characters so you can still read characters you are unfamiliar with. For those that don’t want to read pinyin, the book comes with a piece of plastic that allows you to hide the it and just read the characters. The Graded Chinese Reader also comes with CDs (I know, CDs are dying but Chinese CDs are worth the buy, in my opinion) so readers can test their listening comprehension. I haven’t collected them all yet, but someday I’ll add them to my permanent library. As far as I know, these books only exist for simplified characters. If anyone knows of reading resources for traditional characters, I’d love to hear about them!

Pleco by Pleco Software Incorporated

Pleco is the only pocket-sized Chinese dictionary you’ll ever need. Was that a sensationalist sentence? I think it was. Available for free in both Apple and Android app stores, this app allows users to input English, pinyin, audio, images, handwriting and characters (both simplified and traditional) to search the dictionary for a translation. Parts of speech are color coded, and there is a flashcard function for people who would like to create personalized vocabulary lists. There are a few paid functions on Pleco, but in the three years I’ve been using it I haven’t needed them. In fact, I’m not even sure what the paid functions are. I prefer to view the app in “night mode” because the colors are more distinct against a black background, but the default background is white and the user can toggle night mode themselves. This comprehensive app makes a reliable study buddy, but does not translate full sentences. Rather, it translates each phrase separately. Still, the app can be used offline which makes it very helpful.

Chinese Breeze Series by Peking University Press

I admit that I do not have a ton of experience with Chinese Breeze. I came across the series while updating the catalog information for my school’s library, and made a mental note to share them with my readers. There are three levels (each level is a different color), ranging from 300 words to 750 words. The books are lightweight and come equipped with CDs. Stories in the Chinese Breeze series are often based on ancient and contemporary Chinese classics, though the vocabulary has been modified to fit the level of the reader. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth it for the individual to buy all the books in a level when the Graded Chinese Reader series is an anthology (I prefer the anthology format), but these books are excellent for classrooms because they are thin and portable. Students can borrow them from their teacher, or the teacher can assign a specific book as part of the curriculum. Like the Graded Chinese Reader series, these books are written in simplified characters.

The Routledge Advanced Chinese Multimedia Course: Crossing Cultural Boundaries by Lee, Liao, Jiao, and Wheatly

This was actually the textbook I used for my advanced Chinese course. The chapters are hefty and the content helps students understand mainland Chinese culture. My version of the book was written in simplified characters, with traditional characters alongside the relevant definitions in the vocabulary list. I believe a traditional character version of the book exists as well. At a minimum, there are links to bonus content in the book, and if my memory serves me well that content included traditional character “translations” of the text. As with many Chinese books at this level, there is a CD that comes along with the textbook. Each chapter contains a reading, a vocabulary list, a few grammar explanations and a little culture note (in Chinese). An advanced self-learner could use this book on their own, but it doesn’t hurt to have a native speaker or a teacher explain the differences between some of the synonyms. Some of the characters in this book are for use solely in literary Chinese, while others are used only in colloquial Chinese. Sometimes the book denotes the difference, but it’s helpful to have some one around to correct you. So far, there are two editions of this book, but the differences between editions is minor (in class, students using the older edition only needed to copy the handful of added vocabulary into their books, otherwise the content was the same).

Yabla English/Chinese/Pinyin Dictionary

I would consider Yabla to be the online counterpart to Pleco. It functions much in the same way as the app, but it lives in the browser on the internet. While writing essays, I prefer to use Yabla because it will show synonyms in both languages, which allows users to choose between characters with different shades of meaning. I’m the kind of person who chooses words carefully (when writing essays, perhaps not so much while blogging), so this level of detail really helped bring my essays to life. Yabla also has a pinyin chart, which is good for either beginners trying to learn Chinese or experienced students who need a review. There isn’t much I can say about Yabla that isn’t encompassed in Pleco, and Pleco actually has more functionality, but Yabla’s word bank is much larger than Pleco’s. If I can’t find a word or phrase on Pleco, I usually turn to Yabla (I stay away from Google Translate).

I’ll keep my eye out for more Mandarin resources, but because I’ve graduated from uni, I’m no longer enrolled in Chinese courses. Still, I like to read, and have started to branch out into Chinese-language Literature, so perhaps there will be full-fledged reviews of Chinese books on here (in English, for the sake of simplicity and expediency).

3 Books to Kick-start Your Mandarin Learning

“New year, new me!”

We’re already about a week into the new year, have you started fulfilling your resolutions? Don’t worry yet, there are still 51 weeks left. Why, with all that time, I dare say you can learn a new language. 我建议你马上开始学普通话吧（I suggest you start studying Mandarin, straight away)! I promise it isn’t too hard.

Chinese is one of the world’s oldest languages, with a history spanning several thousand years. What we now call Mandarin roughly traces back to the Jin dynasty (just before the Mongols). The Chinese government proliferated Standard Mandarin (which is largely based on northern dialects) in the early 1900s, making it the official language of the People’s Republic of China. In order to improve literacy, the government decided to simplify the writing system, resulting in what is commonly referred to as “simplified Chinese” （简体字）.

comparison of traditional and simplified characters — Traditional Chinese characters contain many more strokes (lines) than simplified Chinese characters.

In mainland China, simplified characters are almost everywhere: in media, in education, and in transportation. Occasionally, buildings and monuments will be adorned with traditional Chinese to signify age or importance. In Taiwan, traditional Chinese characters are the norm, even though the Taiwanese dialect of Chinese is mutually intelligible with Mandarin. In Hong Kong, however, one is just as likely to run into traditional characters as simplified, though traditional characters have the edge. Cantonese, which is entirely unintelligible to the Mandarin speaker, is more common in Hong Kong than Mandarin, but Mandarin is gaining popularity. Fortunately, the main difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is pronunciation. If you speak one language but not the other, you can still communicate fairly well through written Chinese (though English is also common in Hong Kong, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem).

Because I’ve spent the last three and a half years studying Chinese in mainland China, all of my book recommendations place an emphasis on simplified Mandarin Chinese, but even if you want to take on the challenge of learning traditional Chinese characters, these books will be incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, I do not have any recommendations for Cantonese.

Before I get to the recommendations, I have a tip for you: spend time focusing on pronunciation (拼音/pinyin) in the beginning. Though learning tones might be a challenge for people who’ve never been exposed to a tonal language before, focusing on pronunciation in the beginning will make your Chinese a lot better in the long run. It’s easier to learn it right the first time than to learn it again. Through practice, you’ll naturally memorize the tones on each character and they’ll become second nature to you. Eventually you should get to the point where you can listen to yourself and think, “hrm… that doesn’t sound quite right,” and try again.

Integrated Chinese Textbook Series, by Cheng and Tsui

integrated chinese textbook cover

This series includes four levels (L1P1, L1P2, L2P1, L2P2), and each level is the equivalent of about one semester of university Mandarin. Each level includes a textbook, a character workbook (to practice writing!), and an exercise workbook. Audio is available for the dialogue. There’s a lot of charcater memorization in these books, but new characters are always revisited in subsequent chapters, thereby solidifying your knowledge. For those that want to learn traditional characters, this series is an especially good resource because The first two levels have separate textbooks written entirely in traditional, and the final two levels are written in both traditional and simplified (side by side, making it easy to learn to read both).

2. Learning Chinese Characters, by Matthews and Matthews

tuttle-learning-chinese-characters-review

For some people, stories with visuals are the best memory aids. If you’re that kind of learner, I cannot recommend this book enough. Learning Chinese Characters breaks down 800 common characters and attaches a story based on the components that make up the character (which is helpful for writing). The cool thing is, each of those stories illustrates the meaning and pronunciation of the characters. Because the stories are just a few sentences each, they’re easy to remember. It’s best to go through this book as you’re beginning to learn characters so you can learn the stories as you go, rather than trying to remember them later. I mostly just use the book as a reference at this point. I read an old version of the book, but the link I’m providing should be the updated version.

3. Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar by Herzberg and Herzberg

Basic-Patterns-of-Chinese-Grammar

While a little drab for a more advanced Mandarin learner, this handy guide lays bare the most fundamental structures in Chinese grammar. You won’t sound like a scholar after reading this book, but it’ll certainly help you along in conversation and basic reading. The thing to note about Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar is that is doesn’t actually teach the grammar. Rather, it categorizes the structures for easy reference and provides examples. If you’re perpetually confused about how to express adverbs or where to place “了” (the completion article)， this is your go-to guide.

These books won’t make you a Mandarin-speaking pro overnight, but there is sufficient information between their covers to at least make you conversant. Set goals for yourself. Tell yourself you can’t buy a new book until you’ve finished 3 lessons of Integrated Chinese. Do whatever it takes, but no matter what you do, go at your own pace. Take the time to go over unclear lessons again, and ask questions! I can try to help, but Quora is also an excellent resource for getting questions answered. 加油 everyone (good luck)!

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