Learn Chinese - Study Mandarin with Qooco "How do I get to the airport"

[shayexu10]

Get Chinese Pinyin book from mypinyin.com

[itbeonlikedonkeykong]

its getting harder hahaha

[QoocoChinese]

Good question caboose2090. In this case, the word "zenme" is used to ask the question. "Zenme" essentially means "how". Using "zenme" means that "ma" is not needed at the end of the sentence.

[caboose2090]

why doesnt this phrase have ma at theend indicating that its a question?

[YuukiAyazawa]

@caboose2090 it doesn't have "ma" because "zenme" means how. "ma" is normally used for a yes or no question

[huangman17]

lololo tom's pronounciation is funnnyy

[XMaYueMingX]

What are you talking about! If anything white people are treated better than most Chinese in this country.

[123deerfield]

Also, the comments below are confusing tones with initial and final pronunciation. You say she got her tones wrong, but then refer to initial sounds (ie. Q vs. Ch). By the way, the pinyin initial is Q not Qi

[Memphissound901]

I realize this as I have stated, I have studied Chinese for three years now at Univ. of Washington. The comment about that I made was inaccurate. I would have to say that the further south you go, the harder it is to understand people, and the Northerners put unnecessary (r) sounds on the end of words, both are confusing. I wasn't flaming, don't get me wrong, but even my girlfriend who is from Shijiazhuang (Capital of Hebei) thinks that these tones could use work.

[123deerfield]

I lived in Beijing for a year before college, and Mona's pronunciation seems pretty standard to me, didn't have trouble understanding her at all. I have trouble understanding people from Shanghai sometimes though. I think the clearest Mandarin is actually from people up in Hebei province.

[Memphissound901]

I spent about 2 weeks in Beijing and never heard a single person that sounded like that. Maybe its because I spent 2 months in Shang Hai and are more accustomed to southern accents. I am a semester away from having a Major in Mandarin and a minor in Chinese Culture/Cinema, I have spent almost a year in China, and I have never heard an accent sounding anything like Mona's, but forgive me if I sound like an ass, I'm just concerned for the learner that you are pronouncing tones incorrectly.

[XMaYueMingX]

As a person who lives in Shang Hai, I would have to agree with Memphissound901 on this that the tones are bad, but I never heard of Chinese stereotype about Americans having bad tone. I have done trips to Beijing, and have heard people that sound like her, but she is not very clear in her tones. But to me I have met many Americans and to me even if they get tone wrong I still can understand. But I would say the American is ok, but he says things very fast, maybe too fast for learner.

[Memphissound901]

Mayueming, I think maybe as a Chinese person you don't notice the negative stereotypes that surround westerners in China, much less the stereotypes that surround whites. Not to say that Chinese-Americans don't have the same thing happening to them in the states. But I would say that many Chinese-American people I know also have to go through the racist things as-well. Generally the majority race in a country tends to be racist, and sometimes oblivious to it.

[123deerfield]

Yeah, I don't think that guy has any idea what he is talking about. "Mona" is clearly a native speaker. I was born in the US, but have Chinese parents and grew up speaking in the house. Wouldn't say I am fluent, but I definitely have a good ear for the language and know what sounds correct. "Tom"s pronunciation is good as well. Still has a bit of an American accent, but I think that is natural.

[XMaYueMingX]

Mona is a good speaker. The white guy is ok and needs to slow down.

[Memphissound901]

Wow the Qing Wen, was very poorly announced by "Mona". As a almost fully fluent Chinese student I strongly, strongly warn you to stay away from this guy and his AI pal. Very poor tones, and all of this you can find in a dictionary. You only re-enforce Chinese stereotypes that Americans use lazy tones. Your AI pal speaks better Chinese than you and she didn't even get the tone right on Qing. Sounded more like Ch instead of Qi, and that def was not the right tone.

[QoocoChinese]

Hi Memphissound901. Mona is a native Chinese speaker. She was born and raised in Beijing and has a degree in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. As any experienced Mandarin speaker can tell you, people from different parts of China pronounce words with slight differences. Mona, as a Beijinger, speaks with a fairly standard Beijing accent. That might be why you were confused by her pronunciation of "Qingwen".