Chinese Tones dumplings or sleep? This sounds like a funny question. But, in Chinese, it is a fun sentence to practice the tones.
Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. There are 4 tones plus a light tone. There are many languages, some call them dialects, in China. They all have tones. Mandarin Chinese is the official language in China and Taiwan.
When you visit Canton province in China you will hear people speak Cantonese and Mandarin. If you go to Shanghai you will hear people speak Shanghainese and Mandarin. In Taiwan, you will hear Mandarin and Taiwanese. Many Chinese children are exposed to more than one language.
When you introduce Mandarin Chinese to your child you might wonder if your child is saying words in the correct tones. Don’t worry. Listening to songs, short stories, and interactive conversation in Mandarin from audio or visual resources are all helpful Chinese language input. The more kids listen to the sound of Mandarin Chinese the better for them to get familiar with the sound of Mandarin.
If English is your child’s first language you know what is it like when she first started to talk her pronunciation was not 100% sound like what you were saying to her. But, with consistent listening input from you and people around her she got better and better in saying words, expressions, and sentences. This is the same in learning Mandarin.
Listen to the Chinese Tones dumplings or sleep. You can use the tone card wit pinyin, Chinese, and English as a reference.
Language delivers meaning in context. Look at tones as part of the language learning and you don’t need to focus on one sound or one word for your child. Use phrases and short sentences. Play “What do you hear?” Have a good laugh since sometimes it can sound so silly. That is how you learn and that is how your child learns.
There are tone marks in pinyin and sometimes you will also see numbers next to pinyin. And, this is how it works:
1 represents the 1st tone and tone mark looks like ” ̄ “
2 represents the 2nd tone and the tone mark looks like ” ́ “
3 represents the 3rd tone and the tone mark looks like ” ̌ “
4 represents the 4th tone and the tone mark looks like ” ̀ “
And the light tone has NO number and the tone mark looks like ” · “
The example of dumplings and sleep that you listen to is a Chinese homonym and I will share more examples with you next time.
