Chinesefortravel.com features basic survival Chinese lessons as online podcasts and mp3 downloads. With a simple listen and speak communicative language approach you will learn and become confident with using simple basic survival Chinese. However, a basic knowledge of Chinese Pinyin is required to help you speak Chinese without using the complicated hanyu characters. So what is Pinyin? Pinyin is the romanization of the chinese characters into phonetic symbols. It was adopted in 1958 to help foreigners learn Chinese pronunciation using a romanized phonetic approach.

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The Four Tones

Chinese pronunciation is made up of four tones, each indicated by a tone mark. The tone marks are placed over the vowels. (for example, if the letter “i” has a tone mark over it, the dot is removed.”

First Tone: a high, level tone represented by “-“ as in mā 妈 “mother”

Second Tone: a rising, questioning tone represented by “/” as in má 麻 “to have pins and needles”

Third Tone: a drawling tone falling then rising represented by “v” as in mǎ 马 “horse”

Fourth Tone: a sharp falling tone represented by “” as in mà 骂 “to scold”

It is important to get the tones right so as to avoid misunderstanding. For example buy and sell are differentiated by the 3 and 4th tones respectively - mai3 and mai4

This site has done some work on this:

Consonants in Chinese

1. Consonants

There are 24 consonants in pinyin which are pronounced a lot like in English.

b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, j, q, x, zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s, y, w

Chinese pronunciation of Consonants

b as in boy

p as in pine

m as in mother

f as in food

d as in dig

t as in talk

n as in none

l as in loud

g as in good

k as in kid

ng as in song

h as in hot

j as in jeep

q like “ch” in cheat

x like a sound between the “s” in see and the “sh” in she

zh like “dg” in sludge

ch as in children

sh as in shake

r as in raw

z like “ds” in words

c like “ts” in eats

s as in son

y as in Yao Ming

w as in we

2. Vowels

There are 6 simple vowels.

a, o, e, i, u, ü

Chinese pronunciation of Vowels

a as in mama

o as in drop

e as in earn

I as in sit

U as in look

ü like the u in the French rue

3. Vowel Combinations

In Chinese pronunciation, basic vowels can form vowel combinations with each other or with a nasal consonant.

Chinese pronunciation of Vowel Combinations

- ai like eye

- an sounds like “ah” with an emphatic “n” at the end (NOT like “an” in can)

- ang sounds like “ah” with a soft “ng” (NOT like “ang” in hang)

- ao is like “ao” in Tao

- ei is like “ay” in bay

- en is like “u” in sun

- eng is like “ung” in sung

- er like “ur” in purse

- ia is like ya

- iang is like young

- ie is like yeah

- iu is like the “ou” in you

- ian like yen

- iao is like “eow” in meow

- in as in “in” in gin

- ing as in “ing” in sing

- iong is like pinyin “yong”

- ong is like “ong” in kong

- ou is like “ow” in low

- ua is like “ua” in guava

- uan like one

- uang like “oo” + ang

- ui is like way

- un is like “wou” in would and ending in “n” sound (woon)

- uo sounds like “wo” as in wall

- uai is like why

- ua is like “wa”

- üan like yuan and written without two dots

- üe is like “yue” (“we” in “wet”)

Now, I know you’re going to ask...

Get the rules and tips of using pinyin at http://www.living-chinese-symbols.com/chinese-pronunciation.html

 

 

Chinese Lesson Podcasts

 

Try this Sample Lesson- Click Play

Basic Beginner Chinese Lessons- First words in Chinese

1. Greeting & Meeting People in Mandarin Chinese & Jobs vocabulary
2. Where are you from? & Names of Countries vocabulary
3. Expressing Thanks and Apologies in Chinese
4. Numbers-count in Chinese - Easy- Number Vocabulary Lesson & how to build more words using numbers as prefixes and suffixes.
5. Talking about family and jobs & Occupation in Chinese

 

Elementary & Survival Chinese Lessons

1. Eating out - At the restaurant : In this this podcast lesson you will learn the following:
   • Useful expressions related to ordering food and drinks in a restaurant
   • A grammar and vocabulary analysis of the useful phrases
   • Drinks vocabulary podcast lesson
   • Alcoholic drinks lesson podcast
   • Restaurant talk- Express how you feel about food
   • Restaurant talk - Hear the expressions analyzed
   • Meat vocabulary lesson podcasts
   • Commonly eaten Chinese food
   • Restaurant culture and table manners
   • Seafood vocabulary lesson podcast
   • Vegetable vocabulary podcast lesson
2. At the hotel : This lesson contains the following parts:
• Hotel reservation and checking in key phrases
• Vocabulary lesson podcast related to booking a room
• Sentence and useful phrases analysis
3. Shopping for clothes- Learn how to go shopping for clothes in this podcast
   • Useful expressions and phrases used when shopping for clothes
   • Clothes vocabulary podcast lesson
   • Learn colors vocabulary to describe clothes
   • Sentence structure and vocabulary analysis of useful expressions
4. Making phone calls in Chinese: Learn telephone Chinese
   • Useful expressions used when making phone calls
   • Vocabulary related to making calls
   • Analysis of useful expressions and words
5. Post office Chinese lesson podcast: Learn how to send and receive things at the post office
• Useful phrases and key expressions used at the post office
• Useful words often used at the post office
• Post office sentence and vocabulary analysis
6. Seeing a doctor : Learn how to talk about your health problems to a doctor
   • Useful expressions and phrases used when seeing a doctor
   • Body discomfort vocabulary lesson podcast- vocab lesson 1
   • Sentence vocabulary grammar and structure analysis
   • Doctors advice - phrases doctors would normally use
   • Sickness vocabulary podcast lesson- vocab lesson 2
7. Going Places: Learn words related to traveling
   • Useful phrases and expressions related to traveling
   • Useful words on booking travel services
   • Sentence structure & Grammar explained
8. Going to the bank : You will learn the following:
   • Useful phrases and expressions used at the bank
   • Words commonly used at the bank
   • Sentence and structure analysis- see how it is different from English

By breaking down the lessons into useful phrases, vocabulary and sentence structure analysis, experience has proven that most foreigners will learn enough to communicate with while in China. We have picked the most relevant topics ( the things a traveler always needs)

Chinese Dictionary

 

 

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