What the Folk!

Here's an example of what I have to work with:

Mu-qin.
Mu-qin.
Tai-yang zhao dong fang
Taiyang zhao xi fang
But you know where tai-yang zhao best.

This is one of two songs they have to learn. It's the old Al Jolson song, "Mammy". On the cd, the two characters pronounce "fang" very differently, and that's when I get very confused Their pronunciations are more like:

Moo-cheen
Moo-cheen, etc, then "fung" the first time and "fang" the second. Since the cd is all I have to go on for now, I'm like

The "a" in fang should be pronounced "ah".


I went to school with a girl named Lisa Wang, and it bothered me how everyone pronounced it so that it rhymed with bang. It made a lot of kids giggle, of course.

I might be able to ask my mom for you Nancy. Vietnamese was her first language but she knows a little Chinese too. The only thing is that I don't know when I'll see her next.

Thanks, Da Mango and vmh. I feel pretty good - I figured out the "ah" all by myself!
Today we had auditions and I had those interested speak and sing a phrase in Chinese from the script. We're all pretty happy with the two folks we cast - they're very hard workers who really showed the emotions well of what they were saying in Chinese. And I have to admit, they may be pronouncing things incorrectly, but it sure sounded convincing to me. They're such good little actors, they made it sound as though Chinese was their first language!

Anyone learning Mandarin...props to you! I would find it so hard.

I find it intriguing, and although I won't really learn much of the language, it's so interesting. One word can be pronounced with four inflections, making it four different words. Amazing. I meet with the two actors playing the Chinese roles tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it.