This one of many guest posts here at Discovering Mandarin. This post/lesson is from my friend Megan (@megoizzy on twitter). I have actually been sat here talking to myself for ages after reading it. I implore you to do the same!

Mandarin Pronunciation Debacles

My first semester of learning Chinese was probably the most difficult one. Each week, my fellow wannabe Mando-philes and I were presented with a new series of 10 vocabulary terms, which our teacher went through painstakingly quickly every time. For the first month, I felt like I had missed a class somewhere. In true Chinese style, Zhu Laoshi never intimated the little pronunciation secrets that were my total bugaboos. It wasn’t the tones that were getting me, it was those pesky x’s and sh’s. I couldn’t understand why xian started with x but shen started with sh.

A background in linguistics and basic phonetics helped me to uncover the truth myself, and as the years finally took me to live in China, a local friend was able to help me unpack what was really going on between x and sh, q and ch.

First, there is a very important distinction to make.

x and q are always followed by high, frontal flat vowels like i and ue.

sh and ch are always followed by low, back rounded vowels like a, o and e.

This means that you can have:

xian or sheng but never shian
qiang or chang but never chiang

This might seem arbitrary. It did to me until I learned that there is actually a pronunciation difference between these - they are distinct sounds. And despite what most phrase books want you to believe (which is that x sounds like sh and q sounds like ch), the pronunciation difference between these sounds actually dictates why they are followed by different vowels.

Let’s play a game.

Open your mouth very slightly. Smile. Say the “sh” sound by blowing out the sides of your teeth rather than the front of your mouth. Keep your tongue lying flat. Don’t let it move! That’s the pinyin x. Now say xiàn with that same smile and blowing the air out the sides of your teeth. Keep smiling! You’ve got it.

So what’s the sh? Open your mouth again, this time wider. Purse your lips as if you’re about to plant a big smooch on your Aunt Mildred. Let your tongue curl up a little bit. Blow the air out the front of your lips and say the “sh” sound. That’s the pinyin sh. Now say shèng with those kissy lips still pursed. Keep ‘em puckered. You’ve got it.

This works the same way for q and ch. q is said with a smile, ch with a kiss. Try it now:

qiàn chèng

It’s fairly simple, but it takes a lot of practice to get it right. Don’t be afraid to feel silly. You’ve got to do things with your mouth that don’t feel natural and are not similar to how you use your mouth when speaking English. Don’t be afraid to really test this out. Shout at your wall! qian qian qian! cheng cheng cheng! Flat lips for qian, round lips for cheng.

Once you get your mouth retrained for Mandarin mode, this becomes much easier and feels much more innate. Until then, practice makes perfect!

Chinese New Year is next Sunday (14th Feb)! It is the year of the Tiger! (在虎! hǔ​ nián!) Happy New Year!! (新年快樂!! xīn nián kuài lè!!)

Chinatown in London will celebrate Chinese New Year on the following Sunday 21st Feb 2010 between 12pm-6pm. There will be dragon dancing, lion dances outside shops and firecrackers to mark the event.

In China the mythical creature Nian (年兽, nián shòu) is a beast that lives underground or in mountains (it also shares the name of a year). Once a year, around the time of spring and new year Nian is said to come out of hiding to devour livestock, crops,and even villagers, especially children. It is thought that loud noises and the colour red scare the Nian, which is where the Lion dance (not to be confused with the dragon dance) and loud firecrackers are thought to stem from.

That is the myth of the creation of Chinese New Year. The truth may be much more prosaic. In the middle of the long winter months, a bang up celebration is a good way to cheer everyone's spirits. Noise and fireworks always make a party go with a bang, and the colour red is the colour of celebration in China.

Here are some phrases that may be useful next weekend:

Hours (时辰 shíchen) within the Four Pillars of Destiny represent the final and most personal pillar. The secret animal is thought to be a person’s truest representation, since this animal is determined by the smallest denomination. It is used by fortune tellers that use the Four Pillars as the pillar representing information about one's kids or late age.

The hours are represented by the helpful 12 Earthly branches (and the same animal mnemonic as years, months and days within the four pillars) which were determined by Chinese scholars who charted the orbit of Jupiter. The Earthly branches also determine the calendar and compass points.

• 23:00–01:00: 子 rat
• 01:00–03:00: 丑 ox
• 03:00–05:00: 寅 tiger
• 05:00–07:00: 卯 rabbit
• 07:00–09:00: 辰 dragon
• 09:00–11:00: 巳 snake
• 11:00–13:00: 午 horse
• 13:00–15:00: 未 ram
• 15:00–17:00: 申 monkey
• 17:00–19:00: 酉 rooster
• 19:00–21:00: 戌 dog
• 21:00–23:00: 亥 pig

What is your secret animal? And what does it mean to you?

The day is the third of the Four Pillars of Destiny and in Chinese fortune telling represents information about the person him/herself, his/her adult and married life.

The sexagenry cycle was used in China since the second millennium BC (Shang Dynasty), as a means of naming days (just as western cultures use the days in the week). This use of the cycle for days is attested throughout the Zhou dynasty. More recently this is not as popular but is still used in Almanacs and calendars.

The 1st day of a new year in the sexagenary cycle should be the Lichun (節氣 lìchūn). The Lichun is the 1st solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 315° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 330°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 315°.

In the lunisolar calendar, New Year's Day might be before or after Lichun. A year without Lichun is called 無春年 wú chūn nián (no spring year). 無春年 is also known as 寡婦年 guǎfu nián (widow year) in northern China or 盲年 máng nián (blind year) in southern China. Marriage is believed to be unlucky in a year without Lichun.

I have found it hard to find the corresponding elements and animals of the days themselves, however you can use the calculator to find out your day on my post about the Four Pillars...

Four Pillars Year & Sexagenary Cycle
六十花甲 liùshí huājiǎ or
干支gānzhī

Within the Four Pillars (Ba Zi) Years are the largest element. They are the most generic and least personal in fortune telling. The years are based off of the Ten Heavenly Stems (十天干 shí tiāngān) and Twelve Earthly Branches (十二地支 shí'èr dìzhī).

There are 5 'Elements', 五行 wǔ​xíng​ in Chinese Astrology,

* Wood 木 mù
* Fire 火 huǒ
* Earth 土 tǔ
* Metal 金 jīn
* Water 水 shuǐ

These 5 elements combine with yin and yang to make the Ten Heavenly stems 天干 tiāngān.

The 12 earthly branches were devised from the orbit of Jupiter (the twelve years of the Jupiter cycle also identify the twelve months of the year, directions, seasons, months, and Chinese hour in the form of double-hours.)

The more commonly known animals of the zodiac provide a mnemonic for remembering them. The animals of the zodiac in addition to the Ten Heavenly Stems give us 60 years with each animal and each element pairing up only once in the sexagenary cycle.

To explain how this cycle works, lets give both stems and branches by their numbers. We denote 1 by (1,1) or (甲,子), 2 by (2,2) or (乙,丑) and so on up to (10,10) or (癸,酉). But now we have run out of stems, so we denote 11 by (1, 11) or (甲,戌) and 12 by (2, 12) or (乙,亥). Now we have run out of branches, too, so 13 becomes (3, 1) or (丙,子). We continue in this way through 6 cycles of stems and 5 cycles of branches up to 60, which is (10, 12) or (癸,亥). The next number is then (1,1) or (甲,子), which starts a new sexagenary cycle.

Within the Four Pillars, the year is the pillar representing information about the person's ancestry or early age.

You can download the table below by clicking the image and saving the pdf. It provides the full sexagenary cycles between 1924-2044 with the associated elements and zodiac animals.

Four Pillars of Destiny

Even today, when people talk about Chinese Astrology, it is a common misconception that the animals assigned by year are the only signs of the zodiac. Many western descriptions of Chinese astrology draw solely on this system. In fact, there are also animal signs assigned by month (called inner animals) and hours of the day (called secret animals).

Four Pillars of Destiny is a Chinese term that comprises of four elements of a person’s destiny or fate. The four components are taken from the moment of birth. They are the year, month, day, and time (hour). Each of these elements are important in Chinese astrology, the zodiac and fortune telling.

The term Four Pillars of Destiny come from the Chinese:

I recently got a comment on my Heisig post from a while back asking how I was doing (as today was supposed to be my finish date if I had kept up with my proposed schedule).

I have got to admit I have been lazy, or if you like excuses; I have been so busy that I have ended up ignoring what I wanted to achieve. I have got about 600 characters into Heisigs method and despite a lot of effort have found my motivation waning. I read Greg's recent post about motivation in language learning add that to the sense of guilt I feelby not meeting my own deadline and I feel a much renewed sense of wanting to complete Heisig and start really pushing my learning forwards again.

It is being widely reported that this looks like Google removing their censorship in China. What I see though, is Google finding a way to remove itself from the problems it faces in China.

"We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China." Google blog post

Here is to a wonderful Christmas and English new years holiday to everyone that has supported me this year. I will be back in the new year, with renewed efforts to learn Mandarin. In the mean time, all my best wishes for a peaceful, wonderful time this Christmas.

I came across this Chinese proverb today. I am completely confused as to its usage. Funny imagery though. I couldn't find a picture to do this proverb justice either. Maybe it is just a way to express one's anger.

The following article is written by Karen, who lives in Canada and is part of my growing series of Guest Posts from people I have met online that are also Learning Mandarin. She founded the Chen Pan Ling Kuo Shu Preservation Group in Atlanta, Georgia with a friend. Without martial arts, she would never have started learning Chinese.

This Chinese proverb is the same as the English proverb 'what's done is done' or 'Let bygones be bygones'. It means that things are too late noe to do anything about them. In this situation, it is wise to forgive and be prepared to move forwards positivley as it's too late to change anything now.

In this situation; the rice is cooked. It cannot now be uncooked, therefore this proverb talks about how you must let things be as they cannot be changed after it is happened. Just your attitude and perception of the event can be changed.

生米煮成熟饭
shēng ​mǐ ​zhǔ​ chéng ​shú ​fàn​
the rice is cooked

This Chinese proverb has a strong meaning for me today. It is the first anniversary of my girlfriend and I going out together. This proverb talks about how time flies, and resembles an arrow.

My first year with my girlfriend has gone scarily quickly, yet also seems like I have known her this way forever.

光阴似箭
guāng ​yīn ​sì ​jiàn​
time flies like an arrow

This Chinese proverb relates to when you keep business seperate from private issues. It means keeping your private interests seperate from business, no matter what.

公事公办
gōng​ shì ​gōng ​bàn​
Business is Business

This Chinese proverb is in a similiar vein to the English proverb 'to bear ones cross'. Which means - to accept trials or troubles patiently, as in the story of Jesus carrying his cross.

含辛茹苦
hán ​xīn ​rú ​kǔ​
to suffer every possible torment

This Chinese proverb is similiar to the English proverb "All roads to Rome". It means that there are many ways to go about things and there is no one right way to do it. This is very relavant when talking about how people learn Mandarin. There are so many different ways to learn, and none is 'one and only correct way' all the different methods are valid.

殊途同归
shū tú tóng guī
different routes to the same destination