Fine tuning my pronunciation

I've talked to about 10 native speakers now, 2 in real life and the rest on skype. Every one has been very surprised initially that they can understand me, or that I actually start out speaking Mandarin, or something. I guess there must be a lot of skype users who aren't too interested in good pronunciation. Anyway, after starting out really well, one guy burst my bubble the other day by not understanding a particular word I said.

It turns out while using Pimsleur I've been ignoring the differences between x and sh in some words for the sake of speed. Tsk tsk. Now this has carried over into my conversation, so I'm beating it back down. I'm being anal about this specific pronunciation, and I think I've got it licked now. But this got me thinking, it's time to review pronunciation again.

Reviewing pronunciation makes a lot sense. I now believe it's an iterative process. I did a big pronunciation pre-study to begin this journey, but I didn't try to perfect it, thinking it would be far more efficient to let the minor details work themselves out. And this has worked for the most part. But I've noticed some nagging little differences too, and I can't remember my training in every instance.

So I'll review now, but I have decided to try a different source. Getting complete pronunciation explanations from several different sources makes a lot of sense to me. There are advantages and disadvantages to most sources, so why not use them all? Of course, time is an issue. I wouldn't finish 2 complete beginners texts which cover the same material, for example, due to the amount of time required. But pronunciation explanations/drills can usually be completed in a few hours, so here we go.

I've begun using the first module of FSI Chinese. It's free, and is a very comprehensive unit from what I can tell. There are 6 "tapes", all 20 something minutes long. There is a PDF to stare at while the tape plays. It's free; I downloaded the PDF, but not the tapes. I just play them online.

Wow, I'm glad I decided to do this. they point out all sorts of little things I didn't know, or wasn't paying attention to before. I can't wait to get to the last tape, which covers mixed tones. I've been ignoring the differences between 3-2 & 2-2 tone words. Many sources tell you to pronounce a 3-2 as a 2-2, which is obviously wrong. Others tell you to pronounce a 3-2 as "half of a 3"-2. I've heard this is not quite right either. I can't wait to see how FSI handles it.

Planning Intensive Course

Phase 1 is still going strong. I really don't miss that third day. However, I'll be glad when this phase is over. I'm on lesson 77 now, so less than a month to go!  

Phase 2 is going really well. By using this tutor, I'm truly able to learn 20+ words per day. It feels really efficient. I'm still a little tentative when conversing with my tutor, but this is just a typical nervous problem I've had with all my tutors. My conversations with her are quite a bit better than the ones I had with my Japanese tutors, so I'm not worried about it.  

Here's what we do. I pick out the next topic in my syllabus, and post it in the chat box in skype. For the first 30 min, she gives me about 20 words that apply to the topic, types the pinyin, makes sure I can pronounce them and understand the meaning and usage. The last 30 min is conversation time. I try to post links to pictures that have some relation to the topic, and we talk about them. Most of the talking is on side issues, and we always add several vocab words. This happens 5-6am, before work. Skype reception seems to be the best at that time, and I'm more alert than in the evening. After the lesson, I go to work, and my tutor makes my list.  

She creates an excel spreadsheet for me that has columns for pinyin(word), English(word), Mandarin(word), pinyin(sentence), English(sentence), Mandarin(sentence). She mails this to me.  

When I get home from work, I check the spreadsheet for English and translation mistakes. I make sure the English sentence is literal enough so I can guess the correct Mandarin sentence. I also make sure I understand all the words and grammar. If I don't, I make a note to her to try again on the next lesson, and delete the whole line. I mail the corrected spreadsheet back to her.  

She makes a recording (of the sentences only), Learn in your Car style. By this I mean English-mandarin-mandarin, with big enough gaps for me to say the sentence without stopping the recording, but small enough for me to develop good speed. I'll explain how to get the correct gaps.  

Let the time it takes to say the sentence at native speed = t. I make the first gap a little longer, because it's a little harder. I use t + 2 sec. I make the second and third gaps t + 1 sec. To summarize, English(t+2)Mandarin(t+1)Mandarin(t+1). It's very important that she speaks the Mandarin at normal native speed. I don't want to talk too slow.  

She does this recording using audacity. I'm actually pretty pleased with myself getting her to learn audacity. Her previous recordings were of poor sound quality, and were not edited to give proper gaps. Now she produces a very high quality product. When she's finished, she emails the recording to me. Using this spacing, lesson recordings are about 5min long. After about 6 or 8 listens, I have the sentences down pretty well, and I put the text version into supermemo.  

While she's doing the recording over there in Shanghai, I memorize the day's vocab. I print out a list with 2 columns: pinyin(word), English(word). I peak at the word, cover the pinyin, and pronounce it in Mandarin. I work in sets of 5 to 7 words. It's much more effective than trying to go down the whole list of 20+ words in one shot. I work with a set until I can cover the Mandarin and remember all the words reasonably well. Then I move onto the next set, until I exhaust all the sets. I never learn from Mandarin to English, because that direction seems to take care of itself. I review the previous 3 days of vocab too. Once at lunch, and once in the evening. When a list gets 4 days old, I stick it in supermemo.  

Phase 2 takes about 3 hrs per day; 1 hour lesson and 2 hrs study. I feel I'm actually learning vocabulary, grammar and conversation in a meaningful way, everything confirmed by a native. It's intense, but worth it. I'll continue this until my trip to China.

Phase 3. I booked the course in Dalian, which is a 1hr flight from Beijing. I went with TLI Dalian which was highly recommended by the folks from Chinese Forums. I tried, but wasn't able to get a homestay. I guess homestays aren't too common in China. Oh well, a hotel will just have to do.