Pronunciation

Since the Integrated Chinese Introduction focuses so heavily on pronunciation, we would be seriously remiss to neglect it here. Fortunately, ChinesePod premium users have the online Pronunciation Guide to Mandarin Chinese at their service.

The best way to use the Pronunciation Guide is to download the pinyin chart first (pictured below) from the guide’s main page, then click on all the syllables you’re not sure of to hear them again and again, in different tones if you want. If there’s anything you’d like more explicit instruction on, simply click on “View Tutorials” at the top left of the chart, then click on the part you’re having trouble with. This will take you to the section of the guide that deals with that particular sound.

ChinesePod lessons have also covered pronunciation in various ways. Since every Newbie lesson is designed for the absolute beginner, these will complement your Integrated Chinese studies no matter how far along you are. You might want to check these out:

• The Four Tones
• A Correction of Tones
• Tone Practice

For those of you that just can’t get enough pronunciation practice, you might try some of these other (off-site) links:

• Sinosplice Chinese Language Resources - addresses many learner issues in an easy to understand way.
• Harvard Chinese Pronunciation Guide - similar to IC’s, but from Hah-vahd.
• Pinyin Practice: Tones - test yourself on individual syllable tone recognition.

Useful Expressions

The IC Introduction gives you some “Classroom Expressions” and “Survival Expressions.” The following ChinesePod lessons should help with the classroom:

• Repeat after Me
• Calling Roll

As for “Survivial Expressions,” don’t miss these:

• Can you speak Chinese?
• What is this called?
• How do you say…?
• Please speak slowly

Happy learning, and let us know how it’s going. We especially want to hear from you university students using Integrated Chinese!

-John Pasden