Fluent Forever - Using IPA to Learn Chinese Pronunciation

Last week I recommended the best free-to-use apps out there with (or without) a spaced repetition system. Today, continuing with ideas from Gabriel Wyner’s Fluent Forever, I want to talk about what he suggests you should start with when learning a new language, and I’ll show you how to apply it to Mandarin Chinese.

Pronunciation First

His main point is that when starting a new language, you should always focus on pronunciation first, even before learning any vocabulary or full sentences. Now, I’m not sure I completely agree with this. Just working on pronunciation for several weeks might bore you to death, and then your bright, fluent Chinese future might never happen.

But he is absolutely right that learning proper pronunciation at the start of your language learning journey is very important. Being able to pronounce words like a native speaker would set you apart from most language learners who never put enough effort into it. I just think that adding a few useful words and sentences you can already start using is a great addition, even if you haven’t fully mastered pronunciation yet, as it helps break the monotony of focusing only on sounds.

So what does he suggest? How should you approach pronunciation?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

And here comes the not-so-fun part that might make you want to run for the door and give up on learning Chinese altogether. He recommends familiarizing yourself with something called the IPA, or the International Phonetic Alphabet. It’s a system of symbols that represent the exact sounds of spoken language, helping you understand how words should be pronounced in any language you learn. He also made a video series on pronunciation that can help you get more comfortable with the IPA.

By learning the proper sounds of your target language (Mandarin Chinese) with the help of the IPA, it becomes much easier to get the pronunciation right. The words will be easier to remember, and you'll sound much closer to a native speaker. These sounds are basically the smallest building blocks of learning Chinese, and if you want to build your castle, this is where you should start laying the foundation.

One of the best sources for all the IPA symbols used in Chinese is the Standard Chinese Phonology page on Wikipedia. There, you'll find all the consonant and vowel sounds in Chinese, along with their pinyin spellings, IPA symbols, example words, and even audio recordings.

The problem with IPA is… it’s just not that much fun to learn.
I haven’t met a single student who genuinely enjoyed learning the IPA. So what if you try learning it, but for some reason you just can’t seem to figure out where to place your tongue for each sound? Or it just annoys you to no end, and you’d rather jump off a cliff than keep trying to match symbols to sounds?

Then my recommendation is simple: stop.

Can IPA be useful? Absolutely. It can really help with fine-tuning your pronunciation. But if it causes more frustration than progress, it’s just not worth it. People have learned languages without using IPA, just like many have done it without flashcards or SRS.

So if IPA helps you and you even enjoy using it, it’s awesome! Keep going. But if not, just move on. Focus on listening carefully and imitating what you hear until your pronunciation starts to sound close. Watching how native speakers move their mouths when they speak can also be super helpful.

Training Pronunciation with Flashcards

What Gabriel Wyner suggests is that you look at these sounds and their word examples, then compare them to the sounds in your native language. Do any of them sound different from your native language? If you find sounds that are noticeably different or difficult for you to pronounce, you should create flashcards for these first (preferably using Anki). Then you can also create flashcards for the rest of the sounds. He explains in detail how to make these flashcards and talks about a few different types of cards you can use to train your ears to hear and recognize the sounds of Mandarin, so if you want to dive deeper than what I share here, I definitely recommend giving the book a go.

One type of card he recommends is an ear training card. On the front, you hear a sound or/and word in Mandarin, and on the back, you see the correct answer (the pinyin and optional IPA symbols). Tone cards are also important, where you hear a Chinese syllable with a tone, and on the other side you will see the correct answer (with optional IPA symbols). You should also make minimal pair cards as these show two very similar-sounding words (like zhī and zī) so you can practice hearing the difference. The idea is to repeatedly expose yourself to the tricky sounds, both by hearing and producing them, until they become automatic. You can also use visual cues on your flashcards whenever it’s possible.

He recommends creating about 240 flashcards if you’re learning Chinese or Japanese, and it should take around 8 days to learn them if you practice for 30 minutes a day (you can usually learn about 30 cards in 30 minutes). However, these numbers aren’t set in stone, so feel free to make as many flashcards as you need to recognize the different sounds of Mandarin Chinese.

Now, I know these cards might not be that fun to make, and they do take time. Plus, if you’ve never used Anki before, you might not even be sure if it’s worth it. But according to Gabriel Wyner, the process of creating your own flashcards is already a powerful part of learning, and it can actually help you more than just relying on premade ones. In next week’s newsletter, I’ll also show you exactly how to use Anki and how to create your own flashcards with it.

Also, if creating your own flashcards is not your thing and you're interested in a Chinese pronunciation training Anki deck from me, just reply to this email and let me know. If I see that at least a few of you would find it useful, I’ll definitely start working on it.

🏯Registration is now open for my next beginner group class! The first class will be on August 13 and this will be the last beginner class I offer this summer and possibly even this fall. Spots are limited to just 4 students, and you can enroll here.