1. Pronunciation Tips❤️
The four tones are the core of Chinese. Don’t apply English intonation to Chinese tones. Practice single characters first, then make words and phrases.☺️
Make sure to distinguish retroflex sounds zh, ch, sh, rfrom flat tongue sounds z, c, s— this is the most common confusion for foreign learners.😉
Practice front nasal finals an, en, in and back nasal finals ang, eng, ing separately. Mispronouncing them often makes you hard to understand.🎆
Chinese has no word stress like English. Keep the duration of each Chinese character steady; don’t speak too fast or too slow randomly.🫶
2. Date & Time Expressions😎
Chinese always follows this fixed order:
Year — Month — Day — Weekday — Time
No need to reverse the order.
We don’t say “Number 1, Number 2” for weekdays; just use Monday, Tuesday (星期一、星期二).🧡
For time, simply say what time and minutes. Words like “hour” and “minute” are rarely used in daily spoken Chinese.😁
