For those of you who would like to start learning Chinese, get to a class. Mastering the weird pronunciations and how they (sort of) relate to the romanized pinyin is hard for beginners, and you need guidance early on. “Chi”, “qi”, “che” and whatnot are real puzzlers at first.
The tones are easy to master if you aren’t tone deaf — it’s the strange pinyin spellings that defy explanation. That’s why Americans sometimes pronounce “thank you” in the dippiest manner possible…”shay shay.” Gah! “Thank you” is supposed to sound like “shiyeh-shiyeh” (in pinyin, it is written as “xie xie”).
And don’t get me started about Americans pronouncing “Beijing” as “Beizzhing.” (insert pulling-out-hair smilie) It is supposed to sound like “Bay-jing.” Jing as in Jingle Bells, not Zzhingle Bells.
Luckily, I’m over that hurdle. I studied Chinese for a couple of years (though decades ago), so I’m actually just reviewing, but….I have a lot to say about the Pimsleur language series. I’m listening to their Beginner’s series right now (in the car, on CDs).
Mr. Voice of Pimsleur has an astonishing voice. He never speaks a word of Chinese, yet wags his finger reproachfully and asks if I pronounced a word with the correct tones.
The main conversations are between Mr. Li and Miss Wang. Mr. Li is earnest, polite, and caring (always concerned about whether I would like to eat or drink something). Miss Wang is a bit of a princess, and at the end of Lesson 9 she repeatedly turns down Mr. Li’s requests to go for dinner. “Bu xing” (“impossible”), she repeats, again and again, as Mr. Li pleads for a date. It is terribly depressing.
Fortunately, in Lesson 10, Miss Wang has relented during the 5 second break and they are once again on friendly terms.
The entire Beginners language set seems to be devoted entirely to teaching me to ask someone over to “my place” for a drink. Over and over and over again, Mr. Pimsleur drills this. I am wondering what the Intermediate Pimsleur language CDs will teach.