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Q: How good/ bad are your tones in Chinese and do they actually hinder communication?
Yup! tones really matter as if you don't follow the tones then may be some one totally mis understands you or may be not even recognize that you are speaking Chinese LOL
its actually funny...
if i listen to chinese i barely here them using tones, especially those who are not speaking good mandarin.
Sometime i fuck up the tones and they dont understand me at all or dont even know that i speak chinese
KimOnach:
Mandarin is pretty horrible in Guangdong. Many people there really don't have a clue about tones. Maybe in other places too but this is where it struck me the most. Sichuan is second worst.
I don't know if my tones are good or not, but my wife can understand almost everything I speak.
When I talk to other Chinese, they understand me, too. WO FEI CHANG DONG LE NI! However, some people can't understand a word I say if they see my face. If I tell them I can speak Chinese, they suddenly understand me.
I cannot understand a single American who tries to speak Chinese.
I've found that it really depends on who you're trying to talk to. If they're willing to take a moment and parse through my horrid pronunciation and try to guess what I actually meant via context, then I have pretty good success (usually what I have to do when listening to a Chinese person speaking English for the first time). Then you get those types that just sorta throw up their hands, smile, laugh, whatever while saying HAHAHAHA TA TING BU DONG! TA BU HUI SHUO ZHONG WEN!
My tones are not that good and I find the key to making people understand you is in the beginning. Mess up a few tones then and then its all uphill battle to get them to listen to you again. However, start off well and things go smoothly even though you will eventually mess some tones up.
As many of us, I attend some chinese classes while being in my country, and also for one year here in China. Of course teachers can explain us the tones pronunciation, but I have to admit that listening to people talk, and repeating the way they talk has been my best ally wherever I've gone, specially because some times chinese people do not follow the tones at all. So basically I learn like the kids, listen and repeat, knowing the meaning of the word It is the first step,
