Mandarin Day 2
8:56:00 PM
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| 6 out of 15? Surprisingly, I got the best score in the group! |
Today's our first quiz. Teacher Sophie will say the word in pin-yin and we'd figure out how it's spelled. Easy if the words don't sound alike!
Lesson for today: tones. Vowels and consonant sounds, fucking difficult. Vowels + consonants + tones = What do you think? We practiced with these first:
a, o, e, i, u, u
Then we add the tones and we have four tones. You'll never be monotonous again just speak Mandarin. You have to get the tone right or you might be saying something entirely different from what you mean. Example, ba. It has four different tones so four meanings.
| Tone | Mark | Description |
| 1st | dā | High and level |
| 2nd | dá | Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top |
| 3rd | dǎ | Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top |
| 4th | dà | Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom |
| Neutral | da | Flat, with no emphasis |
Table, here
We breezed through the tones more easily than we did with the individual vowel and consonant sounds. I'm not sure on Monday though because we'll be practicing in pairs and do dialogs. I think I'll be sick on Monday.
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