Why Americans Sound American in Chinese...And How to FIX It

[@RitaChinese]

Pronunciation Boot Camp: ritachinese.com/pron-bootcamp-2 starts September 23rd🎉 Master Chinese Pronunciation in our LAST Bootcamp of 2024 in less than 3 months🙌

[@Phanta3]

How often do you offer the boot camp, or when will the next boot camp in 2025 be, please? I will be traveling a lot during Nov and December and adding this in would be very stressful for me, but I don't want to wait a whole year for this to come around again either... Thank you for your time.

[@RitaChinese]

@@Phanta3 thank you for asking! We’ll try to do it again in late January 2025 or the beginning of February! I’ll let you all know when it’s ready😊 In the meantime you can join the FYMV masterclass and self-study the course content a bit, if you are interested: ritachinese.com/fymv-pronunciation-masterclass

[@Phanta3]

@RitaChinese That's awesome- I will look forward to it! 😁 Thank you for your quick and detailed reply 🙏

[@Homer1e2]

After around 3 months of doing Rita's pronunciation course I'm impressing myself by how naturally Chinese words are coming out of my mouth. Recently I got the highest compliment from a Chinese person: "Wow! We actually understand what you say!"

[@RitaChinese]

Yay congrats!! I'm so happy for your progress with the course and the boot camp format👏

[@Homer1e2]

@@RitaChinese Sadly the bootcamp is a little above my means right now with the current exchange rate. 😅 But the finding your mandarin voice course also delivers a LOT of value. If I could I would definitely take the bootcamp and probably achieve better results much faster.

[@ajaynandur9325]

Ting de dong?

[@YingziGeshou]

I think I'm an advanced speaker of Chinese. I've been doing it for 30 years, and my wife's parents have stayed with us in the US 4-6 months at a time on 5 different occasions. I keep coming back to your channel because 1) there are still some subtle things I'm missing, or some I've been doing without realizing (and understanding is better than doing it right unconsciously), 2) you are the only basic Chinese teacher on KZbin I don't find annoying. I think I have the retroflex and j/q/x down pretty well. But even after 30 years, my American emotional intonation still slips into my Chinese and messes up my tones at times, more when I actually *am* emotional. On the other hand, I think my goal is to just be able to communicate effectively with Chinese, so right now my main focus is more on being able to more quickly adjust my ear to different Chinese accents than to get that extra improvement from my current, say, 85% or 90% accurate Chinese. Also, when Chinese people say my Chinese is better than theirs, it is usually Southerners who are probably merely referring to the fact that my retroflex is closer to the standard than theirs is. I never hear that from Taiwan Chinese... :) Hopefully I'll get over my fear and start my channel soon. When I do, I'll send you links so you can laugh at my mistakes despite 30 years of study. Keep up the great work!

[@Nandinandito]

Rita's bootcamp is amazing! My Chinese is bad but one thing that all Chinese people consistently say now is that my pronunciation is really good 😅

[@RitaChinese]

Haha glad the boot camp was helpful for you! 🙌

[@cinstinasrenatou]

I highly recommend the boot camp :) It was sometimes a bit frustrating, but definitely very helpful :) It helped me to improve my pronunciation and also I'm better at helping my own students now

[@RitaChinese]

Haha language learning is a lifetime journey with lots of frustration but many more rewarding and fulfilling moments! I'm so happy that we got meet and now we're all spreading helpful stuff to more Mandarin learners!

[@dominique-valois]

This is interesting, when teaching Mandarin speakers English, I bring up the same points but in the other direction.

[@MaxBronson]

Welcome back, Rita! Great to see you making content again. Glad to see motherhood seems to be agreeing with you. :)

[@RitaChinese]

Thank you, Max! Having a baby is such a wonderful journey❤️ I'm lucky to have lots of support from family and friends, so I can get back to work so soon😊

[@angryhephilump756]

I am an intermediate level now in Spanish, and singing along with my favorite Spanish singers made my accent go from trash to really good, looking forward to doing this with mandarin also

[@Homer1e2]

This doesn't work with mandarin because they don't keep the tones as they sing, only with rapping.

[@Kazooieandbanjo]

I was actually just wacthing your video about 小马 American accent last night! What a weird coincidence!

[@RitaChinese]

Haha good timing!

[@QuizmasterLaw]

Want to learn to properly pronounce Chinese? Then sign up for Rita's course. Why? Because she uses proven effective methods to help anyone at any age learn to speak Chinese well. Chinese has lots of sounds which do not exist in English -- or any other European language (e.g. J, Q, X) and makes distinctions English doesn't (N, NG). I happen to speak a half dozen languages and even though I was self-studying Rita gave me really useful tips for free! Don't believe me, just watch her videos, and then when you want Individual Attention just sign up and get there quicker, with more joy! Way cheaper and more effective than college tuition. 加油!

[@artugert]

English doesn't distinguish between N and NG? How do you know if someone is saying "seen" or "sing"?

[@QuizmasterLaw]

@@artugert specifically, English does not distinguish between glottal and nasal NG, whereas pinyin N is nasal NG, at least in the first tone, O Besserwisser.

[@artugert]

@@QuizmasterLaw Not sure why you feel the need to insult me, but anyways... What on earth are you talking about? There is no such thing as a "nasal NG". There are only 3 glottal sounds that exist in the world. Which one of them are you referring to? N and NG are always nasal.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

@@artugert Look mate, if you're too slow to notice that Chinese has a nasal NG and a glottal NG just sign up for Rita's course already the ONLY reason I'm writing at this point (some problems can't be fixed at least not by me) is for the algorithm because whatever my limits, and you've met them, Rita is an awesome teacher. Go learn french and learn how to say pain then get back to me. 拜拜.

[@artugert]

@@QuizmasterLaw I don't need the course; I already speak decent Chinese. I have studied linguistics, and you obviously haven't/ There is no such thing as a "glottal NG" in any language on earth, not Chinese and not French. If you're not even willing to explain yourself, not sure what to tell you, man. Look at an IPA chart, and tell me which of the three symbols for the glottal sounds that exist in the world you are referring to. When you realize you're just plain wrong, feel free to come back and apologize for being a jerk. OR at least attempt to explain what you were trying to say.

[@woozskee]

Aside from pronunciation, a rhythm or flow of words from one word to the next also needs to be worked on. Knowing when to pause and when to speed up is important too. Otherwise, it would sound too robotic and strange.

[@史安达]

@@woozskee yes this is what I like shadowing for, especially if watch matt vs japans video on his ideal shadowing setup which gives you a way to hear yourself literally at the exact same time as the recording (even easier if you have airpods and an iPhone)

[@zolamadda5980]

She also addresse this in her courses!

[@RitaChinese]

Yeah definitely! In the last 1/3 of my course and boot camp, we break down the speaking rhythm and different intonations in Mandarin to help students sound more natural and less robotic😁

[@chrismichael6048]

retaining your own accent while speaking in 2nd/3rd/foreign languages is normal、as long your pronunciation is correct and clear。As time pass by、your native accent while speaking foreign language(s) will eventually disappear、though it depends on individuals。

[@江中国-m6i]

A lot of people in the comments looking for an argument instead of looking to improve themselves.

[@CliffCutts]

why'd you stop doing the hand/arm thing when introducing yourself? that was the best part! lol

[@RitaChinese]

Haha I should start doing it again😆

[@江中国-m6i]

​@@RitaChinese It was a nice detail. 😂

[@Themindofreyrey]

The tone class sounds perfect. What level of proficiency should someone be in to benefit from this class?

[@史安达]

@@Themindofreyrey literally any. The earlier the better. It’s meant to be accessible even if you don’t know any Mandarin

[@RitaChinese]

Good question! The tone and pronunciation training is a separate process, so everyone can train from scratch or retrain their mouth muscle memory for years through my training plan in Finding Your Mandarin Voice. People who started learning Chinese a month ago or 20 years ago all benefit from this course and made huge progress👍

[@zxcvbnmqsxcfthn12345]

Makes it sound so hard.

[@EdwardLindon]

If your tones are VERY bad, your listening is probably also not good. And if your listening is not good enough, THAT is where you should spend most of your time and energy. It's sufficient listening that will make you a fluent, more accurate, idiomatic speaker and give you a good working vocabulary. There is, in my view, almost no point in having perfect pronunciation while being unable to have a conversation.

[@Homer1e2]

@@EdwardLindon How long did it take you to become fluent in mandarin to the point of having a conversation with a native speaker?

[@Q_QQ_Q]

Great

[@nack8310]

I noticed they completely skip the third tone.

[@kalevipoeg6916]

Well, I lived in the US for many years of my life, grew up moving around different states, I'm a dual citizen of two countries (one being the U.S.) and grew up with a lot of non-U.S. language and culture and food in my family - so I don't sound "American" even to Americans, who are always unsure what country I'm from due to the way I speak English, which is natively fluent but with distinctly non-American inflections and enunciation and some words (e.g. I'd call something a "bin", not a "trash can", soft drinks, not "soda" or "pop", "football", not "soccer"). SO interestingly, when I DO speak Chinese - I live in China but also previously lived in the EU and US - nobody here ever assumes "American" based on pronunciation, which to ME is a good thing I guess. But then, I don't pronounce my zh, ci, xi, shi sounds like your examples, and I know my tones (I'd better after coming to China for a DECADE and finally moving here). My advice with the tones is...4th tone is easy - it's like you're mad about something and putting emphasis on something (NO! SHI!) - 3rd tone is often taught as a falling/rising tone which I used to do for a long time - yoyochinese and this channel both set that straight though - it's more about hitting the lower end of your vocal register and your voice naturally cracks / wavers a bit. 2nd tone is like you're a California valley girl who Always PUts this UPwards inFLECTion on things? If you've heard people like that you know what I mean. It's like you're unsure - MAYBE???? Are you SURE? but of course that word. First tone is just higher and level - open your mouth at the dentist and say "ahhhh" - like that. Then there's a neutral tone without emphasis - "ha *ba*", "zou ba", etc. For English speakers, FROM an english speaker: Then, for the Zh sound, it's NOT "z" as in "zoo" - it's more similar to the dge part of "judge". So it's NOT "zong when" for the word for China ("zhong wen") - and it's not - as Mark Zuckerberg's pronunciation goes - "jung-when" - it's an in-between sound. For X, as in Xie Xie (thank you), it's NOT the Z sound as in Americans saying "xylophone" - it's more....ok, put your teeth close together, bring your tongue up to the roof of your mouth, make your mouth open like you're ABOUT to smile but keep you teeth close together - and the X in xie xie is more like the hiss of a snake - NOT "sh" as in "she". I hear SO many Americans and Brits and others say "She she" or "shay shay". Force that air out of your mouth. Xxxxie xie. Snake time. Xie xie. Practice and listen to audible examples closely and you will see and hear what I mean. For C sounds as in ce suo, cong, cong ming, etc (toilet, from, smart), it's NOT "see", and it's not "key", and it's not "kuh" - the c sound is more like if you put a ts sound in front of something and slightly pronounce the t. That should get you closer to the actual sound than using the typical english pronunciation of the c sound which often ends up sounding similar to a k, unless combined with an h, or sometimes it even sounds like an "s" - or "ch" sound by itself - "cello", "car, "orchestra", etc. English is weird. Forget the English C. It's NOT the English c.

[@kalevipoeg6916]

PART 2: For "shi" sounds, it's NOT "she" - as in "he and she" - I hear people do this all the time. It's like the SH in "ship" but the "i" is the "ir" in "bird". Combine the two and pay attention to the tone and you will be much closer than "she". If it's Xi, however, like 西 (xi - west - first tone), it's that snake hiss almost-smile sound described above - NOT "sh" sound as in "shush", let's be clear - followed by the "ee"sound in "tee" - and again, pay attention to the tone or the word changes. These are not simply tips from me but from some of the best Chinese learning programs I have seen, which have native speakers working WITH native english speakers to come up with a way to explain how to produce the sounds in a way an english speaker can relate to. Very often, a native mandarin speaker struggles with understanding what WE don't understand because, after all, it's very natural to them and it'd be like you trying to explain english pronunciations to someone - you grew up with it so it's not something you've ever had to put thought to - so of COURSE it's hard to explain. My wife cannot roll her r's (she's a native chinese speaker), yet wants to learn Spanish. I tried SO many times teaching her HOW to do it, but she after years cannot despite very detailed instructions - but I have not given up on her yet - I've gotten her MUCH closer to doing it - it's a matter of finding a way that clicks with a Chinese pronunciation background. Same applies with explaining Chinese sounds to english speakers. When *I* first heard these tips, it clicked immediately for me and my pronunciation improved extremely quickly - and now, I have fooled people into thinking another Chinese person was talking to someone in the next room, and when they come in and see a big foreigner standing there, they're often surprised and comment that they thought they'd been hearing a Chinese guy - which was my first real indication that I had started to sound much more authentic. But, I DID have some advantages - growing up with the ü sound for instance helps with some words in Chinese since you're essentially producing the same thing but with a tone. Still. It helps to relate the sounds and tones to things YOU already can DO. You HAVE all the sounds that exist in Chinese IN your tool box. You simply have to figure out how to relate to them and where they are. Final tip - practice mimicry of native speakers a lotttt. Every day. Imitate radio, talk shows, NOT gong fu (kung fu) movies or ancient shows or Black Myth Wukong (I anticipate that's going to start many people wanting to learn Chinese) - which does NOT use daily on-the-street speech - but practice contemporary things *first* since that's probably your goal - to understand and speak MODERN Chinese. Children are always babbling and repeating what they hear. You do the same thing. It helps - do NOT practice INDIVIDUAl character pronunciations - in real life they're almost never spoken alone but flow as groups. Practice switching a 3rd tone to 2nd tone if two appear in a row - a rule often forgotten - or a 3rd/2nd sound combo (gravely voice / valley girl questioning voice) - practice SENTENCES, not lone WORDS. And...don't learn grammar rule lists. No really, don't. Did YOU learn how to speak your mother tongue by reading grammar rules, about adverbs and pronouns and conjunctions and past participles and blah blah blah? Of course not! YOU could already speak in full paragraphs before you EVER read a single word in school. Same thing here. Also do not learn CHARACTERS at the same time. Not right away. Sounds weird, but if you don't have the base VOCABUlARY first, and the tones and pronunciations, if you can't form full sentences and express thoughts, there's nothing to relate those characters TO. I'd say, in general, get to maybe 2,000 words in your vocabulary (so 10 new words per day for about 6.5 months) - THEN start learning characters while reviewing what you've learned or conversational so far. You will be SO much better equipped to pronounce and REMEMBER those characters if you have the sounds and vocabulary to go WITH them. No lists - grammar lists will burn you out. You don't NEED them. You learn by DOING - over time, the word order and HOW to say things NATURAlly sinks in - without ever knowing specific "rules" per se. In much the same way, someone who grew up speaking english but never studied grammar naturally will say "I need to go to the store tomorrow" and not "Store I tomorrow go will to" - it just "sounds correct" because it got set in over years of experience. last but not least - find a native speaker who will give you HONEST feedback. My wife does for me - but many Chinese people will be VERY nice to ANY foreigner who so much as says a badly pronounced "xie xie" or "zai jian" - they'll say how great your Chinese is, blah blah blah - you need brutal honesty though. And never...EVER....buy any program that promises fluency in 3 months, 6 months, or 1 week - fluency in Chinese takes, realistically, years. At minimum, basic proficiency - per linguists, not my estimate - takes 2,200 hours of *directed, structured classroom study* (not lazy, casual exposure time) - which at an hour a day would take 2,200 days or over SIX YEARS if you are very consistent every day for 6 years. You CAN get there faster - by studying / practicing MORE per day - and in particular by taking AWAY the english crutch as soon as possible - that means NO relying on english - no speaking english except for when there's no other way to explain. No subtitles in english - only in hanzi. At minimum, once you reach a 2,500 word vocabulary, you should be ideally using Chinese for about 60% to 70% of the time - because that's about what percentage of daily speech the 2,500 most common words cover. By 4,000 words, you should be at 90% Chinese, 10% English. By 5,000+ words, 98% Chinese or more. I learned more in my first MONTH in China than my first YEAR of self study simply by being in an environment where I could not fall back on english because where we live, many people cannot *speak* English except or my wife. Go. To. China. You CAN reach a good level WITHOUT coming here - but I promise you, if you really dive in and make yourself good and uncomfortable by diving in to a place where few people speak english, your BRAIN will VERY quickly adapt. Back it into a corner, and it HAS to pick it up as a survival mechanism. That's one of my BIGGEST struggles, actually - my wife got so used to speaking english with me earlier that when we MOVED to China and I wanted to only use Chinese full-time, SHE had a hard time remembering to not respond in english, and also did not want people to understand everything we said. But it's the ONLY WAY you will ever really, truly reach a high, native-like level - by ...stopping the english, and throwing that crutch away. It holds you back. I URGE fellow learners - throw. It. AWAY. As soon as you have the base vocabulary - a few thousand words, say - to do so - toss that crutch, get uncomfortable - it will feel BAD at first, confusing, overwhelming, BUT, the brain is actually VERY good at adapting if it has no other option. This is why you can watch subtitled anime for DECADES and never SPEAK Japanese or really understand it - because you had the crutch and your brain paid attention to the english TEXT instead of the SOUNDS and visual context clues. Throw out the crutch.

[@YingziGeshou]

Also, do you or 老妈 have a Pronunciation Bootcamp for Chinese learners of English?

[@YingziGeshou]

不好意思。我应该先寻找再问。我去老妈视频就看见他就是纠正英文的发音。把链接给我老婆。

[@Evilcat1111]

So Americans have American accent in China and Chinese have Chinese accent in America 😅 I feel better now about learning Chinese 😊👍

[@Evilcat1111]

@@daweilaoshi1622 yeah I was really worried about the tones and saying the wrong words, but I think if I learn the basics I can learn and communicate in Chinese.

[@hayswhite]

This is of course if your goal is to sound authentically Chinese in your language. But it not essential I think. You have a Chinese accent when speaking English but I understand you perfectly.

[@史安达]

I think pronunciation should be a part of language study that you spend time on just like any other aspect (grammar, vocabulary, etc.) You can’t really compare her because she started learning English as a child in the classroom environment (probably not even from a native speaker) but we have so many more resources now, you have no excuse for bad pronunciation

[@Homer1e2]

@@hayswhite people underestimate how hard it is to say something in Chinese and actually be understood. Pronunciation in Chinese is not something you can neglect like in other languages.

[@MrJesterJam]

That's because English is a truly international language spoken in variety of accents. People are used to different English accents. Also English has longer, many syllables words, it is easier to get meaning even if some sound is mispronounced. Mandarin is mostly two syllables words, when people mispronounce sounds like ji, qi, xi, it is hard to understand them.

[@Lightdark1992]

@hayswhite I just find it funny how she talks about how achievable it is to learn perfect sounds, but her english after that many years, which is most definetely 10x easier language to learn than chinese, she still has accent anyway lol like that doesnt really make sense now does it, I really think for chinese its impossible to learn all of these sounds for every syllable, like that is so over the top complex, why does the language needs to be that complex is a bit unfortuanete, because it does actualy sounds cool to me

[@Homer1e2]

@@Lightdark1992 This video and her courses are for people who actually want to be understood when speaking Chinese. If you don't put a lot of hours into practicing pronunciation people simply won't understand what you say. This is not about her pronunciation. I can understand her with no effort at all.

[@gravityissues5210]

I am certain part of the reason why native English speakers get the tones wrong is precisely what you aluded to in the beginning: because tone in English conveys intent (sarcastic, pleading, angry, teasing, etc), which is a very importat part of speech. The lack of tone in written English is precisely why emoticons were invented. An English speaker will have a hard time figuing out how to convey intent without tone, so the habit will be to start modifying the tones to match the mood. I am curious if your course covers that aspect.

[@江中国-m6i]

It does!

[@RitaChinese]

I’m glad you noticed it and realized the stressed/unstressed syllables and intonation in Chinese work very differently than English! I didn’t elaborate much on those in this video, but the last third of my course/boot camp is exactly working on those aspects of Mandarin pronunciation.

[@heikachan8052]

How Slavic people sound when they speak Chinese?

[@RitaChinese]

We can save that for another video😆

[@maelstrom57]

I have this crazy theory they sound Slavic.

[@cinstinasrenatou]

@@RitaChinese I'm really curious what you'll mention :) But I guess it will be focused on Russian speakers ? :))

[@RitaChinese]

@@cinstinasrenatou I’d love to cover more languages if I have the time to do more research!

[@heikachan8052]

@@RitaChinese I'm curious about it because Slavic languages are known to be flat, and I know they have z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, j, q, x sounds. And you had experience talking with Slavic people, hence my curiosity.

[@nogviolinmodern8862]

wow... over here, there are some Chinese people who tell me that I sound like a native Chinese and my Chinese is fluent but to be honest, I am still in advanced level XD

[@zolamadda5980]

They are very polite.

[@velonico]

So fascinating! ❤ Playing with myself and my Tounge! 😂

[@cbysmith]

tongue, lol.

[@RitaChinese]

Haha it is literally like tongue acrobatics😆

[@sazji]

It’s funny to hear someone with a fairly strong Chinese accent telling us how to lose our accents. ;-)

[@YaShoom]

6:13 in IPA you pronounce: ~ d(j)i, ts(j)i, s(j)i. Not as you write: t¢, t¢(h), ¢... (sorry, not IPA symbols). And ZH-sound for you closed English "meSure") .

[@YaShoom]

In chinese ZH-souns retroflex, not meSure, as you pronounce. Я не понимаю почему, но научные книги даже в IPA пишут неправильно... Во многих языках...

[@kevinthehouse2445]

But it is not possible for us to sound native just as it is not possible for you to sound native in English. We just have to be able to communicate and that's enough. ✅️

[@RitaChinese]

It was almost impossible 30 years ago in China when I started learning English, but it’s very possible in 2024. And point is not even sounding native, but to have good pronunciation habits and be able to make clear sounds with tones that natives can easily understand.

[@jeffreylee2993]

Would have liked to see more examples where native American English speakers display even better pronunciation than native Chinese speakers.

[@RitaChinese]

Laoma Chris who is featured in the video is one of the best examples.

[@jeffreylee2993]

@@RitaChinese Do you mean xiaoma? I have been following him for years. His accent is very good and easily understandable by native speakers. But to me, he still has an unmistakably recognizable American accent. But of course, even this could be better than many native speakers. But I am referring to native American English speakers who did not grow up speaking Mandarin, but who managed to attain an accent and fluency even better than the majority of native speakers, eg, perhaps even better than experienced teachers of Mandarin, particularly those who managed to achieve this without having to study in Mainland China or Taiwan. Are you aware of any native English speakers whose pronunciation and fluency in Mandarin surpasses that of even many native speaking teachers of Mandarin? Examples of "青出於藍" would be highly encouraging to learners of Mandarin.

[@Homer1e2]

​@@jeffreylee2993 She said "laoma chris"

[@jeffreylee2993]

@@Homer1e2 Yes, but she didn't identify him within the video. I watched the other video to confirm which one she was talking about. Now I got it. It would be great to point out habits that laoma chris has that are even better than most native speakers. I personally would love to see more non-native speakers who can switch accents to reflect different regions and even various countries. Extremely few native speakers can even do that.

[@vampyricon7026]

This is a nonsensical notion. You can't get better pronounciation than a native speaker. Native speakers are the standard for correct pronounciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

[@marcelosilvamarques3856]

Just like americans have an american accent when they speak chinese, you have a chinese accent when you speak english. It's not a problem though cause everyone can understand you fine, same goes with xiaoma speaking chinese.

[@Homer1e2]

@@marcelosilvamarques3856 It's a huge problem when trying to have a conversation in Chinese because most people don't even realize how far they are from what they are actually trying to say.

[@史安达]

@@marcelosilvamarques3856 it depends on what you want to prioritize. Some people, especially people that know they want to hit a really high level in the language do think it is a problem to have a “foreign” sounding accent and want to sound as close as possible to a native speaker. I think the reason Rita doesn’t make an effort to fix her English pronunciation is because she’s very busy with her job, baby, youtube channel, marriage, etc. to actually put in the time to undo all the old habits that she was unwittingly making because she learned English before she knew any of the principles she is teaching now in terms of pronunciation. I don’t think that really takes away from her message though because you can tell just by listening to her that she’s very educated and understands the “science” of how to improve your pronunciation. She’s also said in interviews that she teaches at university and has seen many examples of people that overlooked pronunciation at the beginning of their journey and then 5-10 years later, they’re like fuck well now I’m pretty advanced in terms of my speaking ability but my pronunciation sucks and it’s gonna be very hard to undo habits that have been there for years; I wish I started paying attention to pronunciation earlier, so what Rita is doing is just spreading the word that it’s good to start earlier. That’s the reason I bought her course and started about 3 months into my Mandarin journey, because luckily one of my Chinese teachers took me aside, and was like yeah you can speak fluently but your tones and pronunciation are all over the place and I remembered watching Rita’s videos and hearing her talk about her course, and I wanted to improve my pronunciation and tones, but didn’t exactly know how; even my 5 native speaker Chinese teachers couldn’t tell me how, they said to just repeat, but Rita’s course actually systematically broke down what I needed to do and I treated it as something I need to practice daily just like reading or listening in the language and I slowly improved. TL;DR: if you’re ok with a foreign sounding accent fine, but don’t put others down for wanting to prioritize it or shame Rita because of her accent when she’s really just trying to spread the word that pronunciation is more important than people think at first

[@kamivenus753]

So true!!! Chinese use Chinese intonation or lack there off and Chinese from what I see have 4 tones where as American English has so many.

[@EdwardLindon]

​@@Homer1e2The main reason people can't have conversations is not because their pronunciation is bad. It's because they are not ready to have conversations. Their experience of the language, accrued through intensive listening, is inadequate. If you produce idiomatic, grammatical sentences connected in a natural, meaningful way, people will understand you, regardless of your accent. The main thing holding most people back is the fact that the Chinese they produce is not Chinese; it's English that uses Chinese vocabulary.

[@Homer1e2]

@@EdwardLindon That is certainly an opinion.

[@shukrimahmood]

👍🌹

[@maggiechan33]

You mean Mandarin, not Chinese.

[@mmtalii]

No offense but how are you going to teach people how to sound native while you are unable to demonstrate an easily understandable accent in English? You yourself have an accent and THAT IS FINE.

[@Homer1e2]

Last I checked she is teaching people how to pronounce Chinese, not english.

[@RitaChinese]

@@Homer1e2 a very good point that quite a few people have missed😅

[@toxtethogrady4610]

This tip could help Americans speak English properly too 🙂

[@EdwardLindon]

Amen.

[@rayafoxr3]

I can’t even be mad at this comment, it’s hilarious

[@pbworld7858]

Americans sound American in any language.

[@gravityissues5210]

Unlike other native English speakers, I guess? Not sure why she keeps calling out Americans specifically in this video. English is English the world 'round and there are several other countries where English is the native tongue besides the US. (I heard there's even this rainy island somewhere in Europe that uses it.)

[@Pangcah88]

Taiwanese mandarin sounds the best!

[@tHE6tH]

I feel like this is kind of odd. Like, they are extremely proficient in their non-native language, and tearing them down like this seems like it's in poor taste. If someone is struggling, and feel like they can't reach the level of the youtubers that you're talking about, there's a change that they'll just stop trying if they see too many videos like yours. I feel like if you want to gate-keep the accent they speak with while being completely fluent (Xiaoma), then you should match it with a strong, native-sounding accent in your chosen language (English), no? Do you need an accent coach?

[@zolamadda5980]

If you actually study Chinese I would recommend you take her course and improve you pronunciaton instead of starting silly pointless arguments.

[@江中国-m6i]

So you think xiaoma is fluent, huh... Rita's advice is gold. Your little egotrip is a waste of time.

[@tHE6tH]

@@江中国-m6i it's not an ego trip. I don't study Chinese. Did you read what I said. It wasn't just a commentary on his Chinese level, it was about the way she puts other down who are obviously in the top percentile of foreigner who speak that language (as a second language). It's gatekeepy and disrespectful. If she was sincere about wanting to help, she'd have him on. They've both been on the KZbin space for a long time. I apologize if I hurt your feelings, user-ur5lr7xt5x. Where's that name from by the way? It's so beautiful.

[@tHE6tH]

@@zolamadda5980 I don't study it. I'm still on Japanese. Also, thank you for not engaging at all with what I said and just reducing yourself for an advertisement for her content; I'd hate to have an intellectual conversation.

[@zolamadda5980]

@@tHE6tH You're welcome. If you ever get around to actually trying to learn Chinese you will understand how lucky you were to find her content.

[@brauljo]

6:47 ¿shouldn't that be spelled with a ⟨q⟩ instead of a ⟨ch⟩?