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Chinese Pronounciation

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Tones In Mandarin Chinese language, there are 4 major tones and 1 neutral tone of pronunciation used to differentiate meanings: First Tone : First tone is represented by a straight horizontal line above a letter in pinyin. Its tone is high and level. When reading a Chinese word with this tone, one's voice must be even. Second Tone : Second tone is represented with a diagonal line going up above a letter in pinyin (increasing in a graph). Its tone is high in pitch. When speaking, one's voice must rise in pitch using this tone.  Third Tone : Third tone is represented with curved "dipping" line above a letter in pinyin, first the line goes down and then it rises up. Same goes with the tone, it has a fall-rise tone when we speak with this tone.  Fourth Tone : Fourth tone is represented with dropping diagonal line above a letter in pinyin. Its tone is high at first, but drops down sharply as the word ends.  Fifth Tone : Fifth tone is a neural tone with no ...

Introducing Myself

Jieshao Ziji (介绍自己) Ni hao! Wo shi Muzlyfathul Loqect, wo xing Fouzee. Wo jing nian ershi sui. Wo shi ma lai xi ya ren. Wo jia you kou ren, wo baba, wo mama, wo de san ge gege, wo de san ge jiejie he wo. Wo shi jiali de meimei. Wo shi MMU de xuesheng, wo yijing xuexile liang nian, wo xuexi Tongxun zhuanye.  Xiexie ni de yuedu, zaijian! 你好!我是 Muzlyfathul Loqect,我行Fouzee。 我经年二十岁。我是马来西亚人。我家有口人,我爸爸,我妈妈,我的三个哥哥,我的三个姐姐和我。我是家里的妹妹。我是MMU的学生,我已经学习了两年,我学习通讯专业。 谢谢你的阅读, 再见!

Exploring Pinyin

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What Is Pinyin? Pinyin is the Romanization of the Chinese characters based on pronunciation. "Pin Yin" literally translates into "spell sound". Thus, it is the way to pronounce Chinese characters in the English alphabet.  In the Pinyin system, there are 23 initials and 33 finals as shown in the figure below. 

Video Review: How to learn any language in six months?

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Based on the TED talk video, Chris Lonsdale talks about the ways to learn a new language in just six months. He mentions the effectiveness of applying the 5 principles and 7 actions in learning a new language. The 5 principles, as shown in the figure below, priorities the need to focus on the language content and to use the language as a tool to converse from day 1, in which I feel is vital steps in picking up a new language. When we use the language to communicate daily, we have to understand the meaning of it too, as said in the Principle #3. Hence, the last two Principles (#4, #5) highlights the pyscho-psyiological matter, which means to make use of our facial muscles to pronounce new words which I strongly believe that it will help in improving pronunciations of a new language.  The 7 actions that Chris Lonsdale discussed about are as shown in the figure below. I agree that these 7 actions, if practiced regularly, will make a person earn the ability to speak a new langua...

A Letter

Dear laoshi,  On our first day of class, you asked us to answer 3 questions; the purpose we took this subject (mubiao) , our promise to learn Chinese (chengnuo) , and how we could learn the Chinese language in the duration of 3-4 months (zenyang xuexi) . Firstly, the purpose I took Chinese language as my elective is because living in a country whereby there is a diversity of race; mainly Malay, Chinese and Indian, I feel like it is a need to pick up another language that is spoken by our society. It would bridge the gap that we have between races even closer and we could understand each other even better. Chinese language, based on my observation, seems to be useful in job scopes requirements too. Thus, learning this language will give me an extra advantage that I could add on my resume someday. Hence, I find Chinese language unique as it has such a distinctive way of writings and pronunciations compared to my usual lingua franca (Malay) and also the universal language...