How I Improved My Pronunciation | TIPS to improve Your Chinese Speaking

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

I know my pronunciation is still not perfect, but these tips really advanced my speaking skills. So I'd like to share with you guys! ;)

[@Thefunhouse48]

Grace Mandarin Chinese Hi Grace, if the definition of perfect pronunciation means the receiver understands every word, then your pronunciation is perfect 👌

[@PEProzent]

In rare instances I misunderstand your short i, e.g. binge does not sound like a short e or a long i.

[@rahuljaykar3660]

your English is very good..!

[@teacup2132]

Honestly, I'm so jealous of my inner voice... It can sing well, speak any language perfectly and sounds so pleasant :(

[@laoziagainstthemachine5323]

Mandarin is a beautiful language!!!!

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

LaoziAgainstTheMachine indeed! ;)

[@laoziagainstthemachine5323]

I'm writing a website in HTML about Mandarin :) Wo shi kuai le

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

LaoziAgainstTheMachine Glad to know! It’ll be great!! 加油💪

[@wywalay]

@@laoziagainstthemachine5323 Wo hen kuai le - 我很快乐。

[@milotv3414]

wow your progression in pronuncing english is just stunning

[@Verbalaesthet]

I did a 10 minute video in Chinese and to correct my pronunciation I used Google translators audio function to read the text to me. On the one hand everybody understands my Chinese well but on the other hand everybody said I sound like a machine :'D lol

[@djbslectures]

Thanks!

[@JulesHatton]

Very motivating to hear your progression in English, which some of us hope to apply to our Mandarin! Of all the Mandarin channels I listen to I always find your voice and speaking very pleasant to the ear, although I initially thought everybody in Taiwan sounded like you!

[@paulwalther5237]

I remember recording my Japanese after I'd been studying for a few YEARS. I couldn't believe how bad I sounded compared to native speakers and what I thought I sounded like in my head. Part of it was the sounds but the huge thing that was immediately apparent was how SLOW I spoke. It gave me some valuable feedback and I mostly tried to talk as fast as I could after that - which felt completely unnatural but got better over time. I didn't record myself again for at least a year or two. While valuable information it was not very motivating.

[@seth462]

This is an important video. Especially for beginners like me. You have quality advice and I appreciate how you have shared your progress. Your channel is one of my daily habits. Thanks Grace.👍

[@Davysprocket213]

Your English is excellent. You should be proud of the command of English, you have achieved.

[@DamnedForAllTime]

You've got some easy but still great tips there, Grace! Liked the idea of echoing the sentence before trying to pronounce it and you're right about the linguistic part. Once you've got some linguistic insights, you can not just learn the language, but get a deeper understanding of how it works, especially in pronunciation. The first video of yours I've watch used an IPA explanation in it and it instantly won me over :D Btw your English pronunciation is way better than the one of any of the Chinese acquaintances I have (they speak like you did 2 years ago :D), so you can focus on being proud of your progress, instead of being embarrassed ;)

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

John Hobman haha Thanks John! Really enjoying reading your feedback!! You literally pointed out the point I wanted to make. Also I’m happy that the linguistic knowledge of pronunciation such as IPA really helped you! I’ll keep learning and summarizing more great rules for you guys to learn Chinese! And btw thanks for the compliment of my pronunciation! ;)

[@DamnedForAllTime]

@@GraceMandarinChinese Of course I did :D It even may seem that I just repeated the same thing you said, but I just wanted to emphasize it :D Btw I have a suggestion for your future videos. I find it ok, that you repeat the Chinese phrases twice, but most of the people learning Mandarin are at some point shocked by the speed, that native speakers talk in. So I thought, as most of the lessons use this really low speed, you could pronounce the phrase once slowly and reiterate in normal speed (or vice versa) for us to get a better feeling of it (and maybe even trying to replicate using the echo method). Do you have any tips on improving understanding of spoken language? Maybe some series or children cartoons, but also general advice? Would be glad to see a video about it ;) And I could compliment you on many other things, but as a reasonable man I won't do it yet (:

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

John Hobman OK! Thanks for the pieces of advice you gave! Yes indeed sometimes I didn’t realize that my speed of speaking is too quick for a learner. And also I’ll think about making a video on how to enhance listening skills when I can summarize some useful tricks;) Really glad to get the information and these feedbacks! Thank you again John! :D

[@DamnedForAllTime]

@@GraceMandarinChinese You got me wrong. I was saying, that most of the lessons use slow pronunciation and it would be cool if you'd incorporate a faster (a more realistic) style of speaking. For example, the short skit of yours about buying stuff was really fast and hard, but It's good that way, because learning shouldn't be easy :)

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

John Hobman oh I see!! Haha because some of my foreign friends told me that I spoke Chinese too fast in the video, I thought that you were saying the same thing :P Now I get it! ;)

[@ttphome4124]

This just turned on a lightbulb for me. Thank you.

[@jeremye8041]

Plus the great thing about making these videos is that you get to continue practicing your english skills! Keep up the amazing work - sounds like you have really made progress!

[@patrickochinski6754]

This is such a great way to see one's progress. 💯💪🏼💛🤗

[@AMann9174]

This video is admirably well-organized and clear. Thank you.

[@wandasanchez551]

Grace, you’re amazing! I hope some day you will be able to visit an English speaking country. After all you cannot fully learn a language without learning the culture, the customs and the history. They go hand in hand. I’m a total beginner in Chinese. I speak English, Spanish; French and studied Catalan and German but don’t get to use those 2 very often. I’m also an interpreter. I sometimes have to interpret in the consecutive mode so I can practice trying to echo or shadow what the native Chinese speaker is saying. As for Linguistics, I did study Spanish linguistics which is useful. In my Chinese textbook they talk about labials, velars, aspirated stops and non aspirated stops ,etc. it certainly helps having that background. Hopefully when it’s safe to travel again I hope to travel to Taiwan and Mainland China. In the meantime there are wonderful people like you providing this content on KZbin. Thank you.

[@Sociology_Tube]

YOU ARE MAKING AMAZING PROGRESS OVER SHORT PERIODS OF TIME ! Great Job!

[@swannmannbaggywaggy]

Your English is excellent and sounds really natural - fantastic! As a tiny tip though - and many English native speakers also say this by mistake - there is no "ow" sound in pronunciation - only in pronounce. In pronunciation the middle sound is 'uns'. Have a lovely day!

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

swannmannbaggywaggy Thank you! Yes I’ve noticed that recently haha! (Already practiced and fixed it😆

[@swannmannbaggywaggy]

@@GraceMandarinChinese Great stuff! Now I have to fix my Chinese, which will take a bit longer...haha :) I passed HSK3 a while back but didn't keep going so I need to relearn a lot....

[@mikhwanese]

aaa, thank u for starting this channel >_

[@Lin-Carl]

謝謝Grace老師！ I don’t think your pronunciation 2 years ago is as bad as you seem to think. However, what has interested me is your brilliantly large vocabulary. Would you say that you prioritised vocabulary over pronunciation at the beginning, and would you say this is a better idea? I have been learning Chinese on and off for about 2 years, and I’m learning very slowly. I do think my pronunciation is ok but my vocabulary is quite limited which really has halted my ability to speak to those around me in Taiwan. I can’t express in Mandarin what I just said in English past the first sentence 😢

[@davidwarchy]

a good mandarin dictionary like pleco is really useful

[@adrielalves531]

Grace老师 感谢你的分享！

[@OKAYNAKHA7849]

great ! I've learnt from you a lot

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

sem hakseng Glad these helps! ;)

[@magdalenabridger-ulloa2859]

So so helpful! 谢谢！

[@1polyron1]

People that learn English not as their first language have my utmost respect. English seems so hard when you aren't born learning it.

[@HaimingChina]

Hi! Thanks for the video! I have find it very interesting and useful! I've been learning Chinese for 8 years and I am still struggling with tones and pronuntiation! I'll try this method!!!!

[@ryanr8121]

You're English pronunciation is very good, especially because you did not learn in an English-speaking country nor have ever traveled to an English-speaking country! What helped me enhance my Spanish speaking and listening the quickest was having a Spanish speaking girlfriend especially because her parents didn't speak English very well...also, associating with Spanish speakers in general. Not only do you get to pick up new vocabulary, but you get exposure to different accents.

[@f.c.c4225]

Thanks for the video

[@katieq.nguyen5816]

Thanks Grace. Everything you are saying is valuable for me

[@shareblare]

ThankYou, I learnt from you a lot. 🥰

[@Dan41565]

Great progress ✔️

[@RB-xj5zv]

Thank you Grace.

[@Davidrxl91]

非常谢谢。你帮助我很多。你的视频有用。

[@minaamin5970]

Wow ,you're such a hardworker!!!

[@eleonorejons9762]

Thank you for great advice.

[@wonderfulcats905]

Your english pronunciation really good.

[@jimbob542]

Great advice, well done.

[@tazbod6723]

You're fantastic, sweetheart. You're pronunciation is good, and your videos are helpful, Grace. Thank you.

[@janepj3794]

It’s very interesting. I did the same. And now it turns out that there is a method

[@Hongkongmaryana]

Thank you for the tips. It is interesting that your English accent sounds very Hong Kong to me (i have been living in HK for more than a decade), not one of the Mandarin speaker. The Putonghua speakers have a very distinct accent in English.

[@zaheersodozai6779]

Your method is very good and helpful

[@Henry-teach-Chinese-in-jokes]

I teach Chinese language in a creative and funny way. Know yourself as well as your opponents or partners. Learning different culture is funny and thought-provoking. Learning Chinese can help you get firsthand and comprehensive information and analysis about China. Chinese characters still retain their pictographic origins. Knowing what the characters look like originally can help understand the meanings and remember them vividly. I’ve spent about 100,000 hours studying English humor and Western culture, and many years studying Chinese culture and jokes. My native language is Chinese.

[@bloxburggirl5355]

I love this when I watched it improve my Chinese

[@penielking5050]

Congrats 🎉🎉🎉

[@SanJoseCAJeff]

I like your videos and your pronunciation is very good. Can I offer you a small suggestion? I would suggest working on the /ɪ/ sound. From an IPA site: "In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /ɪ/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "kit" and "English". It is one of the two vowel sounds we use in English for unstressed syllables, the other one being /ə/.'" I think many foreign speakers have trouble with either /ɪ/ or /ə/

[@carlijn-maeheartbalanoy6270]

Wow wow wow! I'm definitely want to spend time learning mandarin now. How should i start? I'm actually randomly looking into idioms because they interest me. I write the characters down along with the pinyin and its english translation on a piece of paper. The echo method is amazing at making things easier to remember. Now, im thinking what learning habit i should start with 🤔

[@claug1214]

You are the best! Thank you!!! u

[@essamalielmisherghi9693]

Thanks a lot, Grace I am trying to learn Chinese but still taking it not very serious as I am pretty busy but usually every day I listen to some Chinese lessons like yours. What makes it hard for me is how to pronouns the Chinese letters and vowel as they are ,may be it needs more effort but I will try not to stop as such a language is a bit of a challenge to master esp with my age ( 50 ys old) ,once again and from thousands and thousands mile away from China I thank you. Dr.Essam Elmisherghi from the capital of my country Libya ,Tripoli.🥰

[@phuongtuyennguyen8630]

Thank you chị

[@lilarobinson4964]

Wow as if your pronunciation is so good when you've never been to an English speaking country! Honestly I doubt my Chinese would sound this good even after two years.

[@QueennyAija]

你的英语很棒！ 🎉

[@mpmmuirhead]

I'm still HSK 1. What would be some good listening material for someone at my level?

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Matthew Muirhead I know that there are some resources on KZbin. You can take a look:)

[@MTalac]

You lucky guy. I'm just HSK 0 :/

[@lolxd5412]

M. Talac Same lol

[@lotone67]

@@MTalac Same here. I know maybe 40 Chinese characters so far.

[@rainnnnn28]

@@lotone67 same here..update? haha

[@lookits_fran]

it's quite interesting that in your early years of speaking english it almost sounded like you were speaking with mandarin tones in mind? idk it sounded really like a song haha

[@tanrathana6388]

我越看越喜欢学习中文。

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Tan Rathana 很高興你越來越喜歡學中文！繼續加油（很高兴你越来越喜欢学中文！继续加油）💪

[@sappukei3618]

You have a new sub!

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Sappukei Nice to have you here! Welcome;)

[@communicativegirls4433]

Am grace too!ur tutors are so amazing I have them like sand in my youtube library!wo ai ni!grace Guo I hope I will improve too!☺

[@martinphipps2]

"vowel reduction" So there is a term for that. Cool.

[@rizwan3147]

Fantastic

[@nelsondcunha3156]

謝謝你，而早上好。

[@jonlee3049]

i am a bit poor in mandarin thought i really want my mandarin to be like yours

[@simatian2019]

The problem with Chinese is that most material is either super basic or advanced. There isn't much out there for people HSK4-5 that is reasonable, at least in terms of listening.

[@jordandavis6709]

Du Chinese is really good for reading.

[@TheNongrandma.grandma]

Hello! I wanted to reach out and ask if this also applies to learning to speak with a certain regional accent? Also, Grace do you have any tips? I am just starting off on my Chinese Mandarin learning journey and my main objective is to be able to encourage my sweet friend who is Chinese and is such an encouragement to me. I want to be able to speak with her in Chinese, and (I dont know if it is even possible to get close to her region in pronunciation-if that makes sense) in an accent that is close to the region she lives in.

[@thewanwan1612]

I understand better to non-native english speakers than native.

[@kristinagogova3413]

hi Grace, I really like your methods! Do you maybe give private one to one Chinese classes on Wechat?? Cheers!

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

kristina gogova I’m not giving lessons online one on one recently. But if I do, I’ll make sure let you know;) Thank you for giving me the feedback!

[@arabellajoaquin8319]

Can you do a video on AP Chinese Practice?

[@weichen8720]

TBH. i can learn english by watching you teach em how to speak chinese.

[@danielnm5958]

👏👏👏

[@kylecaderao7455]

from my experience listening to taiwanese drama helps to my mom recomemded it before learning . that way I already adapt on the chinese tones .. but she did not highly recomended that I will first listen to mainland drama series because the way they say mandarin words are more slang than the Taiwanese drama .... i do not know if true hahahaha but really did not have a hard time in my tones learning the language ... and the thing amuse me is that the thing that you have been doing at home .. I am also doing it right now while doing the choires talking to my self in chinese my brothers said I look silly hahahah

[@srhmcginley]

Can you recommend a funny chinese TV series to watch online to help me to study chinese? I am HSK3 and studying for HSK4

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

srhmcginley Hi! Sure! I made a video about TV shows recommendations: kzbin.info/www/bejne/en6qgGx5j6plrNU You can take a look at it! :)

[@ladysleopat]

Go Ahead or A Love so Beautiful

[@CP-nc6fw]

Is there any pronunciation trap in Chinese as like Flap T, Glotal T, Dark L, Cot-caught merger, etc. in American English? If you teach us these kinds of stuffs as other English-learning channels did, it will be greatly thankful.

[@mohamedalicendol]

你真的很好漂亮

[@wypimentel]

Really? I thought you lived in America, congrats. Greetings from Brazil.

[@anasmirza346]

grace guo hen hao de laoshi

[@mdhd140]

I had a simple question, do you mean by linguistic knowledge? Is linguistic knowledge the same as the grammar?

[@wei-anhuang5261]

❤️❤️❤️

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

W-An Huang 耶薇安！❤️

[@mohamedalicendol]

你很美丽

[@oda1739]

Ni sé hablar Chino, pero hay que mejorar la pronunciación 😎

[@Jwell]

校友推一個

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Jwell 這位 哈囉竣瑋！哈哈你的頻道也加油哦超厲害的💪

[@polly_pugovka]

🤩

[@toan-thang]

I fall in love with you!!

[@newmotivation1189]

You are great teacher for me. I am requesting to you please make a new video on 'c' and 'z' with mouth picture. Because these letter are verrrrrry hard to pronounce for me. Please please please please please please please please please please please please pleeeeeaaaaaaasssssseeee

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Suhail ali Hi! I’ve made a video about these sounds. Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2ecgGxpi6tnZpY Hope it helps :D

[@newmotivation1189]

@@GraceMandarinChinese I have watched these videos but alas c and z have not clear please ma'am make another video with broad explanation and also show tounge position as well as some example.

[@briannalin5329]

💜

[@stephensiew9237]

It’s not “proNOUNCiation”. It’s called “proNUNciation”. Hope this help.

[@mauricioperezcampos1004]

What reading material would you recommend when you talk about Linguistic Knowledge? Any book? 你在谈论语言学知识可以推荐阅读什么资料？

[@laoziagainstthemachine5323]

Ni hao Grace!!!

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

LaoziAgainstTheMachine hello! 😆

[@laoziagainstthemachine5323]

你是最棒的

[@DavidHewson0]

my tip would be that pronunciation doesn't have an 'o' in it. it's pro-nun-ciation not pro-noun-ciation

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Thank you!

[@DavidHewson0]

@@GraceMandarinChinese very common mistake even by native speakers

[@阮智德]

When you come Vietnam,call me :3

[@sashakan3659]

You sound like airplane hostess😂

[@Paroissien]

"post-'romantic' disorder" 1:07, Oh I know this one in Chinese! => 恋恋不舍! (sorry, bad joke :))

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Eric Paroissien 😂😂

[@5000Raquel]

I love your tips! I feel that they really gave me an extra help and useful insight :) xiexie

[@mskiptr]

This video is a year old so this is probably unnecessary now, but just in case here is one tip for you: The English words same /seɪm/, not /sem/. There is the /eɪ/ (ㄟ) diphthong in here.

[@god-son-love]

The linguistic distance from mandarin to English is the farthest as mandarin is a tonal language. I am a native mandarin speaker and I learned English through reading and writing in Taiwan. The most effective way to be fluent is actually through listening and speaking. Unfortunately we don't have that environment in Taiwan. It took me decades to be semi fluent， but it's hard to get rid of the accent because we lost the ability to hear the difference between our own pronunciation and that of native speakers. Listening to native speaker and Recording your own pronunciation can help. You made a common mistake of mandarin speaker by not pronouncing the ending consonant of words. Another common mistake is 'th' and 's'. Another one is 'n' and 'ng'. Mandarin speaker can't hear the difference so naturally they can't pronounce them well. The other one is the pronunciation of L. The tongue should touch the back of teeth. Movement of tongue muscle is hard to demonstrate so listening very carefully from a native speaker either in person or zoom is absolutely necessary. Find native speakers in major cities of your country and do language exchanges with them will boost confidence and memorization. Fight on !

[@simroysten7963]

Say "Pro NUN ciation" (which is the correct spelling) Not Pro NOUN Ciation. You can improve your vocabulary by reading the dictionary. So far so good. Maybe you can go to Singapore where you can experience different "lao wai" speaking English in many ways and all the signs are in English and Chinese. Maybe become a kindergarten teacher.

[@4SyriaTruth]

we Americans are pretty lenient ... we aren't *ssholes about pronunciation like the French

[@Sydney-zq7cx]

I am Chinese but my Chinese accent is rlly bad-

[@Sydney-zq7cx]

@哦 no bc like my spanish is better than my chinese, that's just embarassing

[@marychrislaporte2906]

Hey can you please type my name in chinese I really don't know chinese. My chinese name is Zhen Weixian. Can you type it in chinese?

[@AndersWelander]

At this time which was 2 years ago I think your biggest errors were grammatical. Sometimes you added an s where there shouldn't be one and sometimes an s was missing. Not sure where your English is as of 2021-10-04.

[@martinphipps2]

You pronounced tip as teep.

[@williamjpriest7475]

2 years ago you sound really drunk

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

William J Priest 😂😂

[@nelsongonzalez4533]

The echo method= it's the parrot 🦜 technic...a lot of repeating and listening 🎧