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Saturday, February 3, 2018

How To Learn Chinese With Different Apps - and learn five tones!

Problem
Duolingo on Chinese is harder than the Italian and Spanish. Well, it would be.

Answer
You might find that an alternative ap works better, or use both, either as a change and reinforcement. Or to fill in the gaps in your learning.

Dulingo
Currently (Feb 2018) in Beta.
Click on the microphone symbol to hear sounds.
Hover your mouse over the signs to get translations so you can fill in the phrases and whole sentence translations. (Short sentences such as My name is ... )

Hello Chinese
Free version available. Covers subjects.

Pleco
Good for Chinese pronunciation.

Handy Hints On Tones
 5 tones flat tone, rising tone valley tone, falling tone, and no tone. 
Here is an example of all of the tones 
ā á ǎ à a 

5 Tones
 flat tone - ā 
rising tone á 
 valley tone, ǎ
falling tone à 
 no tone - a . 

English
If you know English, you only need to learn four tones, because the fifth is no tone. 

French: rising tone á  - falling tone à 
If you know French, you know both the rising and falling tones, as in the word élève, meaning secondary school child. (Think of elevating to the secondary school.) 
Ay-lev. Just pronounce the first syllable on a high note and don't bother with lifting the second syllable. Then you'll get a rough approximation to the two sounds. 

Flat tone: ā 
Flat tone - how is that different to no tone? Maybe just extend it from one second to two or three seconds on a level note, expressionless. Baa baa black sheep? Baa baa - if you say it low and expressionless is the extended flat sound or tone.  

Valley Tone: ǎ
Valley tone, like an expression of surprise, going low and ending on a high note. Say: No-yes! Real-ly! Oo-ooh! Par-ee! (French pronunciation for Paris.)

Step one is to recognize the five tones. That's pretty easy. Next to practice saying them. Now you know them, you can hear them by playing back a few Chinese phrases and listening.

Polyglot poem in next post.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/polyglot-poem-by-angela-lansbury.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and teacher of English and other languages.




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