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What do you say?
Mar 8, 2006 04:31
  • KYLE
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He say's si and I say Shi!
What do you say?
What I am reffering to is the word used so often, in piyin, (shi) There are, I think, 46 different characters for this word.
Anyways when I speak Chinese I say
ehhh ni hao, wo "shi".......
or
shi ma!
or
ni shi bu shi zhong guo ren?
So you tell me, is it si like number 4 si or shi like number 10 shi
I have been to a few provinces, a lot of cities, and met tons of people. You would be surprised how many people say, Ehhhh Ni hao, wo si....
or
Si ma!
or
ni Si bu Si Janada ren?
Mar 8, 2006 05:59
#1  
  • ELLYSE
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It's shi. Some people aren't very particular about how they pronounce their putonghua, that's all.
Mar 8, 2006 07:39
#2  
  • RITA
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Hey you noticed that?! Good!

Ten=shi
Four=si
Yes= shi

There are no other way to pronounce the above words, so they were wrong, and you were right, Kyle:-)

Usually southern Chinese have stiff tougues, in many southern province, people have difficulty to pronounce the sound of 'sh' in pinyin, it's very hard for them to curl their tongues. shi -> si, shen-> sen, shui -> sui... ...

Another mispronunciation made by southern Chinese is you hear no difference between "L" and "N".

Mispronunciations are not only the patent of southern people, people from north China are not better. In a few regions/ provinces I've ever lived in northwest China, quite a lot of people have difficulty to distinguish "en"and "eng" and "in" and "ing" and "un" and "o/ung", this last one actually does not exist in Chinese pinyin.

There are less mistakes in north pronunciations because the standard Putonghua was set largely by the standard of north dialects. That is the given advange:)

Hey I am kidding about southern people's tougues, sorry! but what can anyone here give me a more reasonable explanation:-)

LoL
Mar 8, 2006 12:47
#3  
  • ROGERINCA
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Here’s what I say Rita…………….

You are so incredibly intelligent !!!!

You should be a teacher !!!!

We are all so very fortunate, to be able to interact with such a happy and joyful individual like you, here on TCG !!!! :) :) :)


Mar 8, 2006 18:41
#4  
  • RITA
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Here is what I say Roger... ...

You are so generous to give out compliments, I appreciate what you said very much. Thank YOU!!

Here is something more I say Kyle...(LOL)

Don't worry, Kyle, nobody in China nowadays speak perfect madarin except foreigners and newscasters, LOL, and newscasters only speak(read) that language when they broadcast news.:)

You know how Beijing people say: bu zhi dao (I don't know)? that's b'r'dao, hehe~
Mar 8, 2006 20:29
#5  
  • CALIFORNIA
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Who can speak standard mandarin???---Foreigners who study chinese!!!My spanish and canadian friends can speak very standard mandarin,better then me,I have deep Dong Bei accent:-)

Ok!

For the northeast persons,we can't pay attention to Shi--Si,Chi--Ci,Zhi--Zi,so we speak Shi and Si not clearly!I can't do that correctly!!!

For most south person,they can't differentiate L and N,do you know how to say Niu Nai??Yes,Liu Lai!!!

For a few Jixiang person,they can't differentiate L and R.For example,Rou(meet)--Lou,Re(Hot)--Le(Happy),terrible!!!

That's all!
Mar 8, 2006 21:32
#6  
  • CONNY129
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it reminds me a tongue twister:
si4 shi4 si4 ( four is four)
shi2 shi4 shi2 ( ten is ten )
si4 shi2 shi4 si4 shi2 (forty is forty)
shi2 si4 shi4 shi2 si4 (fourteen is fourteen)
who can distinguish forty and fourteen ?
Mar 8, 2006 21:53
#7  
  • MAY001
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But most of the people in Zhong Yuan, i.e. Henan & Shaanxi can speak quite standard if they know mandarine. At least my friends and me will never be confused by the tongue twister! I admit we have accents, too. But just a little!
Mar 9, 2006 21:48
#8  
  • SAYHITOANT
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Thank you KYLE for raising this subject. Like KYLE, I have problem with hanyupiyin such as SH vs S, CH vs C, ZH v Z, AN vs ANG, EN vs ENG, IN vs ING, etc. So it takes a longer time for me to type a Chinese character using SMS or on a PC. For example, if I want to type a word like “张“，I would try these combinations i.e. zan, zang, zhan, zhang, cang, chang. I would eventually get the correct one but usually after 3 or 4 tries.

I regretted not paying attention on learning hanyupiyin when it was introduced to me during my primary education. I really envy those who can pi the correct yin instantly. I want to re-learn hanyupiyin. Can anyone advise me the correct way of learning piyin? Is there any good book on learning piyin? I remembered asking a friend who could piyin pretty fast to teach me. But she said “I really don’t know how to teach you, somehow, I just got the piyin correctly!”.
Mar 9, 2006 21:59
#9  
  • CALIFORNIA
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Oh,my god,conny,

I can't do that:-(
Mar 9, 2006 22:00
#10  
  • MAY001
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SAYHITOANT,
you do have the same probelm. That is HAN YU PIN YIN, but not HAN YU PI YIN. lol

I think it's not easy for people to learn a language AGAIN especially when you are not a kid anymore. But you can try your best! Think about people who don't know Chinese at all!
I suggest you to buy some books and tapes and practice day by day. Practice make perfect!
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