Importance of tones in Chinese and pinyin...
By wa_sted
@wa_sted (34)
July 23, 2007 3:53pm CST
I've been learning Chinese for a while now and I have a couple of questions about it if anyone can help. Firstly, do native Chinese speakers actually learn/know pinyin or are Chinese characters just learnt?
Also how important are tones? As when I'm practising Chinese I often wonder if my tones are correct, do they have to be exact for a person to understand what you are saying?
1 response
@auLeeau (253)
• China
25 Jul 07
g'day wa-sted,
i am chinese australian and i know how exactly chinese learn their own language,normally mandarin i would say,it is very IMPORTANT or to learn and know pinyin which not only guides you to understanding how chinese characters pronounce but one of the methods, of looking up dictionary as well as pinyin-inputting on computer to result in chinese characters. pinyin is a MUSTDO in learning chinese.
as to tones, think about english tone,i think one of the elements in any language is tone, it is not hard to image how funny or what would be like without tone if speaking.
well, as a beginner just follow your study step by step you definitely will make it.
yes and no they have to be exact to be understood, it all depends context and situation(dialog here i mean).
finally i wish you good luck with your study.
here are couple of referral links of learning chinese:
http://www.chinese-forum.com/forums.php
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/mythology.html
http://dictionary.jongo.com/
