Teaching in China : Vowels and Consonants: Perfect Pronunciation in English: Speaking English Correctly.
Is Correct Pronunciation Important?
Yellow Language.
Vowels and Consonants in Conversational English for Chinese Students.
Is correct pronunciation Important?
I have taught English in China now for 7 semesters, and each semester in at least one class, I have had a student who has complained that I should spend more time teaching New Words, and less time on Pronunciation and Conversational Skills. I find these types of students to be a pain. They want the theory without the skill needed to use what they learn. They say: 'Pronunciation does not have to be exact!'. And they are right! Sometimes!
But sometimes, exact pronunciation makes the difference between having one's meaning understood exactly, and total confusion.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of the difficulties that arise, when students fail to pronounce words correctly. The failure in these cases, arises from a basic flaw in the use of vowels and consonants.
Sometimes the mistakes cause confusion. Sometimes they just make you laugh. Sometimes, they shock you.
Accidentally Using Yellow Language in English.
In 'Chinglish' (Chinese English), the terms "Yellow Movies, Yellow pictures and Yellow talk", refers to, "Blue Movies, Dirty Pictures, and Bad Language of a Sexual Nature".
I often use Yellow Language in Class, (both in English and Chinese) and sometimes, students will object to my use of it. My answer at such times is: "But you already use such language in English. You just don't realise it. Unless I make it clear in Chinese, exactly what you are saying in English, you will continue to use it, and more importantly, you will never pay attention to correcting basic pronunciation flaws in your English Speaking.
Part 1: The Trouble with Vowels.
Do you Drink Coke or something else?
Upon entering my classroom, one boy who was carrying a can of coca-cola, stopped and asked me a question. What I heard was: 'Teacher! Can I bring my cock into class and drink it?
He meant to say 'Coke'. The word he used was an English slang term for Penis (yīnjīng). [Although the word also refers to a male chicken - from the French word "coq"]
The 'O' sound in coke and coca-cola is pronounced the same was as the 'ou' sound in pinyin. 'Co' = 'Kou' in pinyin.
'Cock', has the same vowel sound as is pronounced in 'clock', 'lock', and 'knock'.
What colour is yours?
A female student was complimenting me one day, and I heard her say: 'You have Beautiful Arse!' In Britain and Australia, "arse", pronounced "are - ss" (U.S.A. "Ass") means "pìgu".
I was a little shocked. In fact, I wondered who had taught her this English slang. Before I could say anything however, she added: 'They are so Blue". That's when I realised she had mispronounced a word.
I was once having coffee with a Chinese National English Teacher at the home of my American friend. The teacher's English was flawless and she was a pleasure to talk to. I was in the process of drinking a mouthful of coffee as the teacher announced something, which I heard as:
I was so angry with my students that I told them that they should grow up and open their arse.
You can imagine my reaction. I choked on my coffee and fell into hysterics. I could barely breath. The Chinese National teacher did not know why I was laughing. My American friend knew why, but because she says 'ass' not 'arse', it was not so funny for her to hear.
This confusion between 'eyes' and 'arse' is not that uncommon, and to correct it I teach students the following sentence, telling them that the vowel sound of each word is exactly the same:
I spy with my little eye, something that you might like.
Other words with the same vowel sound are:
fight / flight
light
sight / slight
tight
height
Bite / blight
Kite
night
plight
right
white
I say! I See!
One day a student called me. What I heard him say was: 'Come Quickly! I want you to say something. This call led to confusion, because I wanted to know what he wanted me to say.
"I don't want you to say something" he informed me, "I want you to say something", he explained.
This student could not differentiate between the words "see" and "say". To correct this error, I write on the blackboard, and teach the following.
Teacher: How do you pronounce:- 'A' - 'B' - 'C'. Students Pronounce them correctly. Teacher: Now read the following:- 'SAY' - 'B' - 'C'. Students read it correctly. Teacher: Now read this:- 'Say' 'Be' 'Sea' Students Read this correctly. Teacher: Now read these three words the same as you read the previous:- 'SAY' - 'Be' - 'SEE'.
At this point it is amazing how many students will read: Say Be Say. Nevertheless, many of them finally understand the sound difference between Say and See.
Do you Smell or Smile?
One day a boy said to me: "You have a nice smell!". I said: "Thank you! It is called "Jean Paul Gaultier." This answer confused him, and then he confused me. Finally he made me understand that he was saying that I had a nice smile.
The 'mi' in 'smile' is pronounced as 'my', as in "My eyes smile."
Smile is pronounced as: Ss - My - yell. The following words have the same "i" vowel sound:
aisle (sounds like - I'll)
bile
dial
file
guile
I'll / isle
Kyle (A name)
mile
Nile (a River)
pile
rile (to upset)
tile
vile / vial
while
Is your Bed Red or Rad?
"Rad" is a slang form of the word 'Radical', and usually carries the meaning of 'great or wonderful'. The vowel sound of Rad is the same as words like:
bad
cad
dad
fad
had
lad
mad
pad
sad
tad
It is quite common however, for students to mispronounce these following words, bed, dead, fed, head, Red, said, and Ted, as though they contained the 'ad' sound. For Example, they will say: I sad I hit my had on my rad bad; instead of "I said I hit my head on my red bed".
Each of the words listed above (in Red) have the same vowel sound, but are all pronounced differently by different students, and it is hard to make them understand the actual sound. So this is what I teach them.
What does 'H-A-I-R' spell? They usually get this word right. Then I tell them to drop the 'H' and pronounce 'A-I-R' exactly the same. Then I teach them to add an extra letter; the letter 'd'. 'A-I-R-D' sounds like 'ed' as in 'Education'.
The vowel sound for all of the above listed words is like the 'ed' in Education.
bed
dead
fed
head
red
said
Ted
Which do you use?
I have always found that boys like to learn English Bad language and slang, much of which they get from movies. I was mucking around (playing) with a student one day when he exclaimed: 'Sheet!'
I said; "What did you say!" He answered: "You heard me! I said sheet!" "What do you mean?" I inquired. "You know!" he replied. "Sheet! like: Oh Sheet! S-H-I-T!" I smiled at him and said: 'Mingbai!"
But after hearing him using this word 'sheet' so many times, I finally said: "Listen! If you want to swear in English, then at least do it properly!"
You see, 'sheet' and 'shit' have two different sounds in English. The word sheet applies to many things, and most commonly, to a cloth upon which or under which Westerners sleep. In Summer I usually sleep under just one 'Sheet'.
One day a student asked me if there are really lots of 'ships' in Australia. I told him that as most of us live near the ocean, there are in fact many ships. People own them or hire them, and go sailing or fishing on them.
The poor boy was confused. He was in fact asking about 'Sheep'. (One sheep - 100 sheep, not sheeps). He confused the 'ee' with 'i', just as the boy who said 'sheet' instead of 'shit'.
Most students pronounce 'it' correctly, although some pronounce it like eat. Some words that have the same vowel sound as it are:
bit / blip
clip
fit / flip
git (a slang word in Australia)
hit
kit
lit / lip
mitt
nit
pit
sit / slip
tit
wit
zit
The vowel sound for 'ee' is the same vowel sound you use when you recite certain letters of the alphabet. For Example: B - C - D - E - G - P - T and V. (I didn't include 'Z' because in Australia, many people pronounce this as 'ZED') In pinyin the sound is the same as 'Yi' as in "Di Yi Zhong Xue"
So 'Sheep' is pronounced as 'Sheeeeeeeeeeep' - a long vowel sound. 'Ship' is a very short vowel sound, that same used by the letter 'i' in 'it'. Some examples of words with the longer 'ee' vowel sound are:
beep / beer
creep
deep / dear
eat / ear
feet / feat / fear
heat / hear
jeep / jeer
keep
leap / leer
neat / near
peet & Pete (A name)
rear
sheet / sheep
seat / sear
teat / tier
veer
wheat / wier
year
Part 2: The Trouble with Consonants.
Since coming to China I've only taught in Hubei Province, so I don't really know what types of problems students from other Provinces have, but here, there are some very common ones. For Example:
Students pronounce the letter 'N' when they should use 'L'
They use 'W' instead of 'V' or 'V' instead of 'W'
They often do not pronounce the final 'M' on words
They often don't complete all the syllables in a word
They pronounce 'TH' as 'S' or 'D' or 'Z'
Most cannot pronounce the final 'L' in a word.
This last problem is quite serious, because it often means that the incorrect pronunciation creates a completely new word, and this can sometimes be quite funny.
When students tell me that they don't have to pronounce words exactly, I immediately write something on the blackboard, and then make them read it. My brother is in the hall. Looks simple doesn't it? But because the 'L' in hall is omitted, that word gets said as 'Whore'.
"My brother is in the hall" becomes: "My brother is in the whore!" (My brother is in the jìnŭ)
Of course I originally made this sentence up just to demonstrate my point about pronunciation. But then one day, students in one particular class were taking turns to read from their particular textbook, one sentence of which read:
The Museum was filled with rooms and halls.
What my ears heard (and this happened in the language lab where I could hear clearly), was: "The bówúguăn was filled with fángjiān and jìnŭ".
The inability to pronounce the letter 'L' at the end of a word, will often result in the creation of a completely different word, which, under the right circumstances, becomes a correct sentence in English. In that case, what you intend to say is one thing, while what people hear and understand, is quite another. Here are some examples of how words can change because the 'L' is not correctly pronounced:
All becomes Or
Ball becomes bore/boar
Call becomes core/caw
Fall becomes for/four
Gaul becomes gore
Hall becomes whore
Mall becomes more
Paul becomes pour/paw
Saul & Stall becomes sore/saw & Store
Tall becomes tore
Wall becomes war [I want to go to the wall!]
There are two ways to correct this problem, the most effective of which is 'Remedial Therapy', but that requires putting chopsticks in your mouth. (In the next chapter I will talk about Remedial Therapy.)
For now, I would just like you to look at the two 'L's' and pronounce them as "lè", so that the word "Ball" is pronounced as Bō - lè. If you speak with an American accent you will probably pronounce the 'a' in 'ball', more like the word 'are' as in: "You are beautiful". This is OK. We are not correcting accents, but consonant formation.
As you practice pronouncing 'LL' as lè, keep your eyes closed, and imagine what your tongue is doing. Now of course, this will not work for students who confuse 'N' and 'L'. You will have to practice this after reading the next article entitled - No. 10: Why can't people understand my words?: Remedial Therapy.
When you can see (in your imagination) what your tongue is doing, then try to say the word, without making the final ' è ' sound. That ' è ' happens when you drop the tip of your tongue from the top of your mouth behind your teeth.
Practice this method with all the words in the list above. Separate the vowel sound, which in English sounds like 'or', from the 'L', so that you say every word as though it has 2 syllables. But once you understand the position of your tongue for the letter 'L', you have to say the words as just one syllable, while making sure your tongue goes where it should to make the 'L' sound.
In the next chapter, we will come back to the whole problem of vowel sounds that end with 'L', because there are a lot of words that are mispronounced, and in the process, form different words.
There is a similar problem when the first letter of a word is 'N' or 'L'. Many students get it wrong, for one of two reasons.
They either learned a bad habit from a teacher and classmates - or -
In Chinese, they can only say one of these two letters.
We will deal with this in the next article also, but for the moment, here are some words to look at, because some students get 50% of them wrong. If you can't tell the difference between these words, then you have a problem.
Not / Lot
Name / Lame
Light / Night
Life / knife
Light / night
Lack / Knack
Snack / slack
Nate / late
Lick / Nick
Lit / nit
Neat / Leak
Lock / Knock
Let / Net
Lest / Nest
Another common problem concerns the letters 'V' and 'W', and again this occurs through bad habit, or the way in which some Chinese speak in local dialect.
The letter 'V'
There is almost no difference between the letter 'F' and the letter 'V'. If you hold a piece of paper to your mouth and say quickly 6 times, the word 'Very', the paper will hardly move. If however you say 'Ferry', you will see the paper jump. The position of the lips and teeth are almost the same when you say these two words.
I tell you this, because many students cannot say university. They say: "uniWersity". This problem can be corrected very quickly.
You know how to pronounce the words her and sir, so I want you to use the same vowel sound to pronounce the word fur. The hair on some animals is called fur. Now I want you to say the following 5 words, one after the other. When you have finished saying them once, say them again, but faster. Do this 6 times, and each time say them faster. Only the word fur is written in English. The rest are in pinyin. The numbers on the right side, represent the tones/accents that you should use as if you are speaking Chinese.
Yù (1)
Nĭ (3)
Fùr (4)
Sē (1)
Tì (4)
If you say it right, then you already know what the word is. Students who usually pronounce a 'W' instead of a 'V' should learn to replace 'V' with 'F'. No one will notice! Believe me! [For Non Chinese people: "Yu" sounds like the English word "you' but said fast / "Ni" sounds like "Knee" said slowly / Se sounds like "Sir" spoken quickly.]
The Letter 'W'.
Many students vill mispronounce vords that commence vith 'W' as if they commence vith 'V'. Almost all students with this problem, can say: Wŏ ài nĭ! And this is all you need to remember. The English 'W' is the same as the 'W' in Wŏ.
Of course it is hard to break a bad habit, so you can help yourself to remember to pronounce 'W' as 'W' and not 'V', by saying things like: I Wŏ, Wŏ, Wŏ, want to go to school. This helps train your lips to form the right position to pronounce 'want' correctly.
The letter 'M'
Students who don't pronounce the final 'M' sound in words, are basically just lazy speakers, and we will deal with this in the next article. But just to give you an idea of what happens when you don't properly pronounce the final 'M', here is a very good example:
My nei is 'Jie' and I car fro Wuhan.
My name is Jim and I come from Wuhan.
Don't laugh! I hear this all the time. You do not "car fro" or "car from" or "come fro" sarwhere. You come from somewhere.
That is all for this article. We have covered a lot.
In the next article, we will talk about remedial therapy a bit more, and discuss ways to improve both your reading and speaking.
I hope that his article has been of assistance to you.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
