One great way to practice your Chinese (and English) is
through tongue twisters. That’s something I do everyday for, well, fun. (Yes, that
is what language nerds do =)
As featured in this week’s video, here’s a Chinese twister for your tongue
about (rather confused) soldiers going to battle:
八百标兵奔北坡
炮兵并派北边跑
炮兵怕把标兵碰
标兵怕碰炮兵炮
Literally
translated:
800 foot soldiers head towards the northern slope
The artillery soldiers line up to run north
The artillery soldiers are afraid of hitting the foot soldiers
The foot soldiers are afraid to be hit by the artillery soldiers
This exercise helps to practice the “b” and “p” sounds in Chinese. These
aspirate sounds are pretty easy to pronounce, because they are like popping
sounds that are pronounced in the front of your mouth. Try putting your hand in
front of your mouth to feel the air coming out as you say it.
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Since it’s great to
be bilingual, I try to keep my English muscles toned as well. My favorite is
about a guy who has an affection for peppers that apparently no one seems to
believe.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper
picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter
Piper picked?
…which sounds pretty funny (and equally tongue-tying) in Chinese:
彼得·派珀挑了一些的腌辣椒,
一些腌辣椒被彼得·派珀挑了.
如果彼得·派珀挑了一些腌辣椒，
那彼得·派珀挑的腌辣椒 到哪去了？
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This next one is an exercise to practice the “s” sounds in Chinese, and
it has to do with the numbers involving 4 (which happens to be not so lucky in
Chinese, because the sound for the number “4” - 四 is similar to the
character for “death” - 死).
四是四, 十是十,
十四是十四, 四十是四十,
谁能说准十四，四十，四十四，谁来试一试
Literally translated:
Four is four, ten is ten
Fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty
If you can say
fourteen, forty, forty-four correctly, try it yourself!
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For English tongue twisters, it’s recommended to say it at least three times in succession, such as the following ones:
A quick witted
cricket critic
一个反应快的板球评论家
Can you can a can as a canner can can a
can?
你可以装罐头象一个专业装罐头装罐头吗？
Roberta ran rings
around the Roman ruins
罗伯塔围着罗马废墟跑环
By repeating at least three times, your mouth will have proper workout around the challenging words like “quick” and “witted”. This will help
increase the reaction time and agility of your language muscles. Also, try to
increase the speed every time you say it, without compromising the quality or
the correct enunciation.
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This next tongue twister is a rather philosophical one, possibly
inspired by the Daoist philosophies of Lao Zi:
知道就是知道，不知道就是不知道
不要知道说不知道，
也不要不知道装知道
一定要做到老老实实，实事求是，
不折不扣的真知道
Literally translated:
To know
is to know, to not know is to not to know
Don't
say you know when you don't know,
and
don't pretend you don't know when you know
You
have to honesty, actually, 100％ really know
This exercise helps to practice the “zhi” and “shi” sounds in Chinese,
which are pretty difficult to pronounce when juxtaposed side-by-side.
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Now many Chinese tongue twisters tell a short and witty story, such as
the following ones:
日头热，晒人肉， 晒的心里好难受
晒人肉，好难受， 晒的头皮直发皱
Literally translated:
The day is hot,
burning people's skin, burning so much it's unbearable
Burning people's
skin, so unbearable, so much that my that the scalp is wrinkling!
Definitely puts into
perspective how hot it can be in China! And this next one, is just plain weird:
稀奇稀奇真稀奇，麻雀踩死老母鸡
蚊子身长三尺六， 八十岁的老头躺在摇篮里
Literally translated:
Strange
strange oh so strange, a sparrow tramples over an old hen
A mosquito grows three feet six, and an
80-year-old lies in a cradle
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As a bonus (not
included in the video), here is my favorite Chinese tongue twister
involving two guys with round eyes:
山前有个严圆眼，山后有个杨眼圆，
二人上山来比眼，不知是严圆眼比杨眼圆的眼圆，
还是杨眼圆比严圆眼的眼圆？
Literally translated:
Yan Round Eye lives in front of the mountain,
Yang Eye Round lives at the back,
The two of them climbs to the top to compare
their eyes.
Wonder if Yan Round Eye’s eye rounder than Yang
Eye Round,
Or is Yang Eye Round’s eye rounder than Yan
Round Eye?
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All and all, tongue twisters are a great exercise for your mouth, and
the great thing about them is that you can do it whenever and however many
times you want!
And if you want to give your mouth an international workout, check out
this great reference for tongue twisters from around the world.
