Chinese Pronunciation Correction Workshop

People expect that the main challenges involved in learning Chinese are things like characters, vocabulary, reading and writing, but they forget about the challenges presented by mispronunciation. This workshop is designed to help Chinese learners who already have at least an intermediate level of Chinese to break poor pronunciation habits and eventually master the correct pronunciation and tones of Mandarin Chinese. This workshop will not only provide a review of the Chinese sound system, but it will also help the students to overcome the difficulties and pitfalls faced by most English speakers, such as the four tones, the initials “zh/ch/sh” v.s. “j/q/x”, the initial “r”, tone-sandhi, and the final “u” v.s. “ü”, etc. Through a variety of fun class activities including group practice, games, and pronunciation drills, such as similar sound comparisons and mixed recognition exercises, this workshop aims to also help students recognize the ‘mistakes’ they commonly make and understand what they are doing ‘wrong’, compared to what they ‘should’ be doing. Throughout the course, students will receive continual and immediate feedback in class and, at the end, will be on their way towards speaking with clear and correct pronunciation and tones.

NO textbook is required to purchase for this class. Materials will be provided in class.