What do new Chinese speakers sound like to native Chinese speakers? Often when I hear Asians speaking English, it is quite easy to tell if it is their first or second language.
Their pronunciation of certain words and sounds such as the hard r's and hard and soft t's usually gives it away.
So, my question is, is that how we, foreign Mandarin speakers, sound to native Mandarin speakers?
I know that Chinese depends a lot on pronouncing the tones of every word correctly. Yet, when I speak Mandarin to my family, they still praise and understand me even though I know that I am getting certain tones wrong.
To clarify, do foreign Mandarin speakers sound as bad speaking Mandarin as foreign English speakers do speaking English?
Two things I want to say about tones.
1, Tones are not as important as they sound if the purpose is to get yourself understood.
You must have been told thousands of times that tones will affect the meaning of the words, and the example given is usually &quot;ma1&quot; (mom) and &quot;ma3&quot; (horse). However, most of the time, the meaning can be told from the context. Actually, I do have a Taiwanese friend referring to her mom as &quot;wo3 de ma3&quot;, but we all know what she is talking about. I think that case is much more distinguishable than 四 vs 十 in some dialects. (not Cantonese level &quot;dialect&quot;. I consider Cantonese as a different language. The dialect here is something like '河南话' which is not far from Mandarin. However, I was never able to tell 四 from 十 in '河南话'.)
2, Even if you get all the tones right, I will still be able to tell you are a foreigner
The key is the pitch (抑扬顿挫) of sentences, not the tones of characters. Some of my ABC friends speak Chinese very well, which is better than most second language learners. They sound to me like they are speaking perfect Chinese sentences in English pitches.
*, &quot;Do foreign Mandarin speakers sound as bad speaking Mandarin as foreign English speakers do speaking English?&quot;
If you consider it as 'bad', yes they do, but it is 'better' than most dialects sound to Mandarin speakers.
Well, I don't think it is bad as long as understandable.