I've been studying Mandarin for quite some time, using various methods. I've taken the time to memorize many of the characters, but I've decided it is time for me learn the actual spoken words from which the characters derive.
The task of memorizing the tones seems to be impossible. To my untrained ears, there is hardly a difference between them.
My question is, is memorizing the tone each character uses a worthwhile task? There is no memorable way to memorize them, it must all be done through brute force. I'd like to avoid this if possible. What are the disadvantages if I decided to skip memorizing all the tones and then went to China and spoke to people? Would I accidentally end up calling someone's mother a sexy horse or something?
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Anonymous2009-07-16 22:58
>>1 What are the disadvantages if I decided to skip memorizing all the tones and then went to China and spoke to people? Would I accidentally end up calling someone's mother a sexy horse or something?
You most likely simply will not understand what are people talking.
I have studied a bit of Mandarin, and it took me a while to learn not only the tones but the proper pronunciation of certain pinying words. For example: huang, guo, si.
From what others have told me, as long as the sentence is sound grammatically, using some incorrect tones isn't terribly bad. Not to mention that many Chinese natives in school often do not always use the correct tones due to many different regional dialects.
My advice is that you forgot about the tone markers after a bit and just try to emulate what you hear directly, and try to pick up on the audio conversations and link the audio word directly to the Hanzi.
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Anonymous2009-07-18 16:11
I am the radical of my hanzi.
Vocabulary is my body, and tones are my blood.
I have created over a thousand sentences.
Unaware of Spanish.
Nor aware of Japanese.
Withstood pain to create many paragraphs.
Waiting for one's arrival.
I have no regrets, this was the only path.
My whole life was Unlimited Chinese Works.
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Anonymous2009-07-19 3:26
I'm sorry OP, but it is really not that hard.
It seems like you have done some self study, which is great, but a Chinese 101 class would really be helpful. The tones and pinyin are the first things a teacher covers. If that is the only thing holding you back, problem solved.
Have your teacher teach your some pronunciation drills and record them saying it. Listen to the recording, repeat. Record yourself and listen back to it. With a little effort you can properly learn your tones.
Why would you put in so much time and effort to speak broken Chinese?