I've decided to learn Chinese.

[Han Solo]

North (as in Penang-type) or South (as in Klang Valley/Johor-type)?

LOL

Teluk Intan Hokkien which is a cross-over of Penang and Klang's version.

Han Solo

[HuangYushi]

In the TW and lazy Can accents, the consonant part gets murdered.

I hear lazy Cantonese from younger/newer actors/actresses in TVB serials. Sometimes, the frequency of it really makes me cringe (e.g. when a character has a lot to say and the dialogue include a lot of lazy words)!

Cringe-worthy example: 我行过去。
Properly-articulated Canto (using Yale romanisation): Ngo haang gwo heui.
Lazy version: O haan go heui.

LOL
Teluk Intan Hokkien which is a cross-over of Penang and Klang's version.
Han Solo

Oooo, Teluk Intan! The leaning tower and yummy local food!
I've got to visit one day!

[jiang bao]

Another one is "nei gin gwor gor gor yan mei?" (Have you seen that person before?)

Becomes lei gin gor gor gor yan mei?

Luckily all three "gor" has different tones.

I don't mind the N-->L or Gw--> G thing too much. It's the elimination of the --g from the end of words that bugs me more.

[sniffles]

Another one is "nei gin gwor gor gor yan mei?" (Have you seen that person before?)

Becomes lei gin gor gor gor yan mei?

Luckily all three "gor" has different tones.

I don't mind the N-->L or Gw--> G thing too much. It's the elimination of the --g from the end of words that bugs me more.

I notice some of that dropping of the --g going on sometimes when I'm listening to tv shows in Mandarin. Or at least that's what it sounds like to me. Sometimes it also sounds like they're adding a --g to a word than ends with --n.

For example, while watching XAJH 2001 I noticed that it sounds like the actress playing Ning Zhongze says "Shang'er" whenever she speaks to her daughter Yue Lingshan, instead of "Shan'er".

The actors playing the Qingcheng School members also seem to be saying "sifu" instead of "shifu" and "si" instead of "shi". Is that supposed to be a Sichuan accent?

[Huang Rong]

I prefer the Taiwanese Mandarin accent. The Taiwaneses friends I know, when they speak Mandarin they dont curl their tongues as much as my Nothern Chinese friends do thus sometimes they pronounce sh as s, zh as z, etc. which is not liked by many people who speak standard Mandarin (Mandarin in Beijing). But I like that way of pronunciation, in my opinion it sounds softer and cuter than standard Mandarin.

[HuangYushi]

It's the elimination of the --g from the end of words that bugs me more.

Yes, I agree. Maybe the speakers think it's cute, but I find it irritating.
I wonder: didn't TVB used to send their actors/actresses for speech lessons, so that they can articulate the words correctly?

[jiang bao]

Makes them sound like they have a cold that never goes away. LOL

[Cesare]

I kind of dislike the omitting of initial ng- sound. I've always considered the initial 'ng' one of the cutest things in Cantonese...:-)

[jiang bao]

The tough part about the ng-- thing is that it's hard to know which words have ng-- and which don't. I usually have to check the dictionary to be sure.

What I've noticed is that some Cantonese speakers omit ng when there should be ng and add ng when there shouldn't be any ng.

Example, "I" is ngor, but many say "or." "Love" is oi, but many say "ngoi." I am guilty of the latter. In fact, I usually add ng when in doubt unless I know for sure the word begins with a vowel sound.

Is that like the opposite of lazy cantonese? Maybe it's called "busy cantonese"...

[Cesare]

How about "hypercorrect"...? ;-)

[kidd]

Example, "I" is ngor, but many say "or." "Love" is oi, but many say "ngoi." I am guilty of the latter. In fact, I usually add ng when in doubt unless I know for sure the word begins with a vowel sound.

I think both 'oi' and 'ngoi' are acceptable for the word 'love'. 'oi' is the standard while 'ngoi' is the variation.

But, 'ngoi' sounds a lot nicer to me than 'oi'.

[xianzai]

From here.

I received my copy yesterday. I've been having fun trying to puzzle out the first page.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I had a lot of fun reading it on the bus to/from work.

I wish I could just work on that all day instead of being at my desk at work.

Install the software on your work computer.

The basis for the vocabulary in The Lady in the Painting is the old book Read Chinese, Book One (ISBN 978-0-887-10064-2). I don't recommend picking it up unless you're having trouble finding sensible definitions for words/phrases in Lady, as Read uses the Yale romanization of Chinese, not pinyin.

[sniffles]

From here.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I had a lot of fun reading it on the bus to/from work.

Install the software on your work computer.

I don't think I want to lose my job over my desire to learn faster.

The basis for the vocabulary in The Lady in the Painting is the old book Read Chinese, Book One (ISBN 978-0-887-10064-2). I don't recommend picking it up unless you're having trouble finding sensible definitions for words/phrases in Lady, as Read uses the Yale romanization of Chinese, not pinyin.

There are some words I don't know the meaning of. But I have a dictionary and a book on learning characters, so hopefully I'll be able to puzzle it out eventually.

I found out that in January I may be able to enroll in a class to learn to read and write Chinese. I haven't made up my mind yet, though. I'd like to take the class but there are scheduling difficulties.

[dictionary]

I have a question about pinyin. Is the "x" pronounce like "sh" or "s"? My teacher insists that it's pronounce like and "s" but when I listen to people speak, I hear the "sh" sound.

[sniffles]

I have a question about pinyin. Is the "x" pronounce like "sh" or "s"? My teacher insists that it's pronounce like and "s" but when I listen to people speak, I hear the "sh" sound.

My teacher also teaches it as an 'S' sound, but I can hear just a little bit of a 'HS' sound. No, that's not a typo. The aspirant sound comes before the sibilant. At least that's how it sounds to me.

[Cesare]

After my 6th class of Classical Chinese, I think I'm getting the hang of "zhi", "zi", "ci" and "chi" sounds.
Still fighting with the 3rd tone a bit.
One thing is for sure... Sound-wise (that is - leaving tones aside) I find Cantonese pronunciation much more "Czech-native-speaker friendly" than Mandarin pronunciation.

I'm indulging in the self-study of Cantonese and I attend Gudian Hanyu lessons.

Haven't attempted Mandarin yet but planning to.

How crazy I am?

[junny]

I have a question about pinyin. Is the "x" pronounce like "sh" or "s"? My teacher insists that it's pronounce like and "s" but when I listen to people speak, I hear the "sh" sound.

A little bit of both, depending on the word.

For words beginning with the pinyin "xi-", you will hear a more s-like sound, such as "xiang", "xi", "xie".

For words beginning with the pinyin "xu-", you can hear a hint of the "sh", such as "xuan", "xun".

Although I don't like the way the Taiwanese romanise their names, you can sometimes see the correlation. For example, Taiwanese politician Frank Hsieh's surname is Xie. Taiwanese celeb Barbie Hsu's surname is Xu, you can hear a little of the "h" sound even though it's spelt Hsu.

The tricky part is the "u", which should not be pronounced "oo" (making it Hsoo), but with your lips puckered up as though you're gonna kiss someone.

[jiang bao]

I have a question about pinyin. Is the "x" pronounce like "sh" or "s"? My teacher insists that it's pronounce like and "s" but when I listen to people speak, I hear the "sh" sound.

The way I think about the S sound is that it's pronounced more at the tip of the teeth, and the accompanying vowel is usually a shorter sound. The X consonant is usually followed by longer vowel sounds.

The X sound should not be pronounced in the same way as S. It sounds more like 'sh' but without curling the tongue.

[dictionary]

Thank you guys. I will keep practicing. So far "x" words poses the most challenge for me, more so than the c's and r's. I just took my first test today. My mind went blank on me. I couldn't remember how to write half of the characters. Darn!

[jiang bao]

Since you have no problem with 'c' sounds, think about the difference between how you pronounce the 'q' sound versus the 'c' sound. Analogously, it's the same difference between 'x' and 's.' Practice alternating between qi and ci, then switch to si and see if you can find xi.

Another way I can kind of describe the "xi" sound is if you pronounce the english word "she," but instead of puckering up your lips a little, you pronounce "she" with your lips spread wide. The sound produced isn't exactly like "xi," but it's very close.

If you experiment, it may help you find the correct sound.