CLO_001: The Four Tones
In this lesson you will learn:
• high tone
• rising tone
• falling rising tone
• falling tone
• zhū high tone.
• zhú rising tone.
• zhǔ falling rising tone.
• zhù falling tone.
• qǐ falling rising tone
• tīng high tone
• kàn falling tone
• lái rising tone
PDF Notes: 
October 22nd, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Very well done…!!!
Thank you
November 2nd, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Very Nice this will be my new favorite podcast to listen to during my train ride to work. I just have one comment.
Kiran sounds like she is a little to far away from the mic, which made it a little hard to figure out the pronunciation of some of the words. I really like when Adam pronounces the word because he sounds like he is a little closer to the mic.
Nice job
November 2nd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Thanks for the feedback! Kirin’s microphone problem has (hopefully) been fixed for later lessons. Let us know what you think!
November 3rd, 2006 at 6:27 pm
I agree with Jorge Mendez. I am a female with a deep voice and therefore, Adam’s voice is CLEARER to me for pronunciation. I would recommend that Kiran says the verse/word. And then Adam, then silence for us to practice. I would love to hear Adam’s voice pronunciate the words and versus. It gives me an idea of what a deeper voice sounds like when the words are spoken.
PS. I love it, also, when Adam says stuff like, “Isn’t that interesting?” It gives the podcasts personality.
Keep up the good work.
I think I’m going to sign up for Premium content Monday. I’ve been listening thru lessons one thru 4 every day this week.
I love it.
Another suggestion, if I may……in your notes, or premium notes….
adding the phonetic English sounds to the words. For example, zia = zeeah OR xie xie = shyeah shyeah. I was doing this with lessons one and two. It helped me ALOT!!
November 8th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Do you know how do down load on a CD or DVD? I don’t have an IPOD
November 8th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Deborah, there is a ‘download’ link at the bottom of the player above. Right click on this link and choose ‘Save as.’ This will save it on your computer. From there, you are free to burn it on to CD or DVD if you wish. Use the Contact Us link on the right sidebar if you have any problems.
January 12th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I just found your site and checked out lesson 52; I would like to know more about advanced lessons. I have been learing Mandarin for about two years and I primarily need more listening tools and longer conversations. Your approach seems to be good. Any suggestions?
January 12th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Hi Pete. Every 30 lessons, I will be increasing the difficulty slightly by adding more Chinese within the lesson. Expect the next jump in lesson 61. The goal is to eventually be able to conduct most of the lesson in Chinese. I will also be adding more resources to the website in the form of music and videos to give you other forms of input. If you have any suggestions for anything specific you think would be of benefit, please send them this way.
January 15th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Thanks for your reply; I’ve found that listening is definitely the hardest part for me, even after two years of serious study and many visits to China. So many accents and different ways of saying things plus context is extremely important. By the way, how do you pay for this site? Premium subscribers? I don’t see many adds.
January 16th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Currently all the revenue used to support this website comes from Premium subscribers. However I’m looking to change the model over the next little while to allow me to have more content available on the “free” side, without having to resort to traditional ads so stay tuned!
January 18th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Es increíble esto del chino. Gracias!
February 12th, 2007 at 7:46 am
That was great!
February 12th, 2007 at 8:29 am
This podcast is awesome. I’ve only been learning Mandarin for a week, so my pronunciation is still completely off, but using this podcast I’m improving ^_^
Thanks so much for this!!
March 9th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
I like everything about this.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:46 am
[…] For example, I’m currently trying to learn Chinese - I’m learning it by podcast. The little experience I have in teaching languages I know the importance of practice and repetition. So in this respect the podcasts have been invaluable in supporting a largely behaviourist mode of teaching. In defence of the authors there are extensive notes and the language learning is embedded in meaningful contexts. […]
May 15th, 2007 at 4:49 am
[…] Mientras que el podcast en inglés comienza enseñando a distinguir los cuatro tonos de la lengua china (la misma palabra puede significar, según el tono: cerdo, cocinar, vivir o bambú), el podcast en castellano (Aprendiendo chino mandarín mientras se monta en bicicleta), como la mayoría de los cursos de idiomas, empieza por enseñarnos a saludar, dejando la cuestión de los tonos para la segunda lección. […]
May 30th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Very Interesting Podcast, keep doing what you are doing, It’s fabulous.
Kop Khun Krap (Thank You in Thai)
July 26th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Excellent I hope to learn basic chinese trought this method
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
The first word sounds like you are saying choo but the spelling zhu would make me think that it is supposed to sound like zoo…Why is this? Am I hearing that correctly? Is it supposed to sound like choo or zoo?
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Hi Eric,
I would say that the version you are hearing is probably closer to a “joo” sound. Different speakers from different regions will have slightly different ways of pronouncing it. In later lessons you will hear speakers from other regions as well, which will hopefully give you a better understanding of the different possibilities.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:35 am
Thank you for your help. I would like to make a suggestion, though. Can you put a Pinyin consonant and vowel pronunciation chart online that makes a more simplified and more actual conversion of the actual sound? I do not mean to be nit picking on an already established writing system, but it does not seem to me that the actual pronunciation matches the latin letters that are being used.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Thanks Eric. Others have also expressed interest in something similar so I’ll add it to my “to do” list.
September 8th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Thank you for your help. Very interesting Podcast.
September 24th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Hi. Thank you for this. It is helpful so far. Could you help me translate something into pinyin please. I’m supposed to be going to Taiwan at the end of this month for a community tourism workshop. The english statement I wish to translate to mandarin is:
“A democratic Taiwan that shows sacred regard for the inalienable Rights and Freedoms of man is to be preferred above any socialist system that interferes with these Rights and Freedoms”
September 24th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Anesia,
It would be something along the lines of:
Mínzhǔde Táiwān bǐ shèhuì zhǔyì zhìdù de guójiā gēng néng kànzhòng rénmínde quánlì yú zìyóu.
September 24th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Thank you. This is what I got from someone who works in the embassy in my country here.
zi you min zhu Taiwan chong shang chi ban ren quan, quan sheng guo na xie gan she ren men quan li han zi you de gong chan guo jia.
I have not put in the tones as u can see. Does the above translation give the same meaning? whats the difference between that and the one you gave me? Thank you for your help. It is precious to me right now.
September 25th, 2007 at 3:07 am
My version says: Democratic Taiwan thinks more of people’s rights and freedoms than socialist countries.
Your version says: Free and democratic Taiwan upholds human rights while communist countries interfere with people’s rights and freedoms.
(A little advanced for lesson 1 of my course, but hopefully it helped)
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Helo!
I find it strange after downloading Mp3 podcast from your site I copied to my I-pod but it does not play. I have trired with other Mp3 but those are Ok. What is wrong please tell me.
Thanks.
Ishrat
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
How much of whatever lesson that I’m listening to should I remember before moving on to the next lesson. Should I know 100% of what is taught before moving on?
April 4th, 2008 at 6:20 am
I’d say Kevin, if you can understand the next lesson, you were right to move on
If you feel that you’ve reached a level that’s too high for you, just go back a few lessons and repeat them all.
Hey, I made it to the end this way, so I think it’s an OK method.
Most important thing is not to give up!
April 5th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Thank you Jonatan.
April 5th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Hi Kevin,
I agree with Jonatan. As far as vocabulary goes, if a word is important enough it will show up again in later lessons. If you find yourself not understanding later lessons, then that’s usually a hint that it might be worthwhile to review some of the earlier lessons.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
yes, one of the real strengths of this course is that every effort is made to use words in several different lessons. Getting the words in different contexts really helps me to remember so much more than if I try and remember them by rote. Indeed, it’s quite a buzz when I recognise a word that was used in a previous lesson!
April 27th, 2008 at 4:14 am
It was really a nice beginning! I have started learning - I plan to learn Basic Chinese in next 2-3 months. Please let me know how to learn faster.
Mukesh
April 29th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hi Mukesh,
Each person’s learning rate is different. One nice thing about this course is that you can go at your own pace and stop and review anytime you feel yourself falling behind. We had one user go through 200 lessons in about 2 months!
The transcripts and review exercises on the premium side are designed to help keep you on track too.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:55 am
I really want to learn how to speak Mandarin. Thanks for this! This will really help alot!
Thank you very much.
—Justine (Philippines)