Because English Is NOT A Tonal Language...

Tweet

An interesting observation. First off, I have extremely sensitive hearing, so I hear even the faintest whisper 10x louder than most would. This has something to do with my screwy vision, and the fact that I've learned how to "see with my ears." Today I had an encounter with two nice, but LOUD Chinese men. The first one worked at the computer store where I was getting some stuff printed, and the second one was the taxi driver who took me home from there. Both have been in Canada for well over 10 years, but in all honesty, both can do a lot of work to make themselves more understandable in English. Unfortunately, both of these men, well intended though they were, had a really annoying habit of YELLING to emphasize a point. Between the man in the store, and the man in the taxi, I had such a headache when I got home. Sad, because I was only out of the house for about a half an hour. On the way home, inspiration struck me, as to why they might be yelling at me. I remembered that Mandarin Chinese is a Tonal language. Not sure about Cantonese, maybe someone out there can set me straight. I imagine it would be. However, in Mandarin, the same word expressed in several different tones, can mean several different things. I remember one example from a book I read about 17 years ago, that pronounced one way the word "MA" (one syllable) can mean mother, but another way, can mean to swear at someone. This is as much Mandarin as I know. LOL In English when we want to emphasize something, we change our voice tone. However, in a tonal language, if they did that, they'd end up saying something totally different, so they emphasize by saying it louder. The Chinese accent is already very high-pitched as it is, so for me the yelling nearly sent me through the windshild. They both still spoke a mile a minute, and I still couldn't understand either of them. So, why am I writing this? First off to explain to native English speakers why some Asian folks tend to yell. Don't worry, they're not mad at you, and on average, are very nice people. Secondly, and more importnatly, to my Asian friends who speak tonal languages. English is not one of them!! Not everyone understands the dynamics of tonal languages, and can often take a louder emphasis the wrong way. Also, to those not used to the tone, our ears may actually hurt. English-speakers, when addressing someone about tone, be gentle, but clear. Those who speak tonal languages, please slow down, and speak clearly. Don't worry about tone, because in English it doesn't really exist. We don't sound like robots when we speak, but our words don't change their meanings by tone either. They change by context. "Is there time to go to he beach?" is totally different from "they're on the way, and they're bringing their families." There, their, they're. Those three words are all spoken the same way, but obviously in context of the sentence mean something different. My husband spent some time in Asia in th 60's and 70's, so he has a better handle on the accents, tones, words, etc than I do, and he can even read a bit of Vietnamese. I, on the other hand, do much better with slavic accents. Serbs, and Croats, for example, can also get loud and boisterous, but to the sensitive ear, their accent is much smoother and gentler.