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  二套周日19:00首播 一套周五14:00 十套12:00、19:00重播

English Tone  
  E: Hi. Welcome to "Let's talk". Today we have really fun topic for you. And it's something that we're just discovering ourselves. So you won't find it, I've never seen this in a book. But I've been here in China for fourteen years and Rebecca's been here for seven. So after a while you began to wake up and realize some of these differences. And our topic today is tones. You all know Chinese have. In Chinese there are tones.

  R: Yeah.

  E: 声调. First tone, second tone, third tone, fourth tone.

  R: English doesn't have any official language tones. So you won't see any markings when you're looking at your English text book. But when people speak, they do use the same patterns and it dose have a meaning, how your voice goes up and how your voice goes down.

  E: And so you need to be clear about these up and down things. Because if you add, if you add tone to your English, you're adding emotion. What the tone's add is a motional content. So for example if you use a name, let's say Peter, the name Peter. If you say: "Peter!" fourth tone, sounds like fourth tone, right? Peter! 下去. That means you're angry. That's the tone that mother uses to scold her children, right?

  R: Don't do that. Yeah. And it does have an emotional impact. You could say: Peter? Peter? That's second tone. Right? That probably means where are you. Right? And so actually these are very important for meaning. But this forth tone, we definite want you to understand because sometimes foreigners don't understand Chinese tones. And they'll walk into a crowded happy group of people eating at a Chinese restaurant. And there is lot of loud talking. And foreigner think: Oh, some of them might be fighting or something is going on here. They think there is emotion happening. But it's just the tones in Chinese.

  E: And there's happiness. So it's loud.

  R: You might see a western family eating at a restaurant speaking their language very quietly and they're also very happy. But they're practically silent.

  E: So that's another issue then. The loudness, I mean in the west happiness is not loud. And then what foreigners might do when they come to China is they hear the loudness and they hear some of forth tones. Like 你去不去? 你去不去?And they think: Oh, that person is angry. Because for us, a forth tone is an angry sound. The sound of the forth tone carrys the emotion of anger.

  R: Or even just emphasis. "You must pay me the money you own me." You know that's a kind of emphasis. That's forth tone.

  E: Yeah. Very strong sounding, forth tone.

  R: And as we said second tone is almost always a question. "Are you going?"

  E: And then there is third tone. We were thinking about is there any equivalent for third tone. For example if I suggested may there were two students. And I said: oh. let's let Peter go. And then Rebecca wasn't so sure. She thought maybe he couldn't do it. She might say: "Peter?" That means maybe I disagree with you. Let's talk about this a little more. "Peter? " "You think?"

  R: Or I'm sure you've heard someone say "Really?", "Really?", that's very common.

  E: Third tone.

  R: Do you mean that? Is that true? "Really"?

  E: Yeah. And then there's first tone. There's an English word , that's "ho-hum" , "ho-hum" means "I don't care", "没有关系".

  R: 马马虎虎.

  E: Yeah. 马马虎虎.

  R: And we thought a quite few of those. There is one that my children say all the time .

  And that's "Whatever". "Are you going to eat supper now?" "Whatever." "Did you do your homework? " "Whatever.". Oh it makes me crazy. But when you're practicing your English. You do need to, maybe think of it in phrases. It's not just word, word, word, word, word. There are phrases, and of cause being in a sentence that helps you. But listen to your teacher or your native speaker or the movies and listen for those phrases, cause there are tones. They go up on questions and they go down... And it will help your English sound very native.

  E: Yeah. You will have some rhythm, some proper rhythm. So just remember forth tone: "Peter!", that means I'm mad. You shouldn't be doing that. Or you have "Peter?" It means "Where are you?" And then you have "Peter?" I don't think he can do that.

  R: Right.

  E: Peter? No, he can't do that.

  R: And I have to include also: be patient with your foreign friend who are trying to learn 中文. That includes me. Because we have our habits of our tones and it's so hard to remember to use correct Chinese tones. When I make a question in 中文, I still go up sometimes. So you may have to really listen hard to your foreign friends bad Chinese.

  E: And also be sensitive. Because if people are talking in a loud voice. Your foreign friend will probably think they are angry. Just because there'll be forth tones and the sound is loud. And we also wanna to remind you that the sound, the volume of your sound is very important. In the west we always keep a small volume unless you are angry. So just some extra few hints for your English study. See you next time.


英语的声调
  E: 欢迎收看“你说我说”。今天的话题很有意思,我们也是偶然想到的,以前从未在书上看到过类似的介绍。我在中国居住十四年了,Rebecca在这里已有七年。经历过这样长的一段时间,你会突然有所感悟并发现一些语言差异。我们今天要谈的是英语的声调。大家都知道中文有四声:一声、 二声、 三声、 四声。

  R: 英文中没有法定的语调,所以书本上是没有特殊标记的。但当人们讲话时采用的不同声调确实能传达不同的意义。比如:升调和降调表达不同的意义。

  E: 你首先要弄清声调与语言含义的关系,因为讲话者的声调中往往包含着感情或情绪因素,讲话的声调与情感紧密相关。打个比方,当你说出一个人名,比如:Peter ,如果你说:“Peter!”,这听上去像第四声,降调,说明讲话的人生气了。妈妈责备孩子时常用这样的口气。

  R: 是的,你不能那么做。语调的确受情感的影响。当你说: Peter? 这听上去像第二声,意思好象是 "你在那里?"。所以语调传达了内容。我们要了解中文的第四声。外国人一般不了解中文存在四声,所以当他们到人声嘈杂的中餐厅,听到人们在大声地讲话,他们会认为有人在争吵,或者认为发生什么事了,他们以为有人在发怒。

  E: 有些人高兴时就会高声讲话。

  R: 西方人在餐厅就餐时讲话的声音都比较低,即便高兴的时候也不会大声讲话。

  E: 这是另一个问题了。在西方,高兴并不意味着要大声讲话。所以当西方人来中国,听到一些人大声讲话和使用降调,他们会误解为有人发怒了,因为西方人认为降调是表示生气的声调。降调带有生气的情绪。

  R: 有时加重语气也给人同样的感觉。比如:你必须把欠我的钱还给我。

  特别加重的语气。第三声往往用于疑问句,“Are you going?”。

  E: 我们来找一个与第三声相对应的例子。比如:有两个学生,我提出建议:让Peter去吧!Rebecca认为没有把握,她会说 “Peter”,她的意思是:我不太赞同,我们也许要再商量一下。

  R: 你们可能还听说过“really”,这个词很常用。你是这个意思吗? 真的吗?

  E: 英文中有一个词 “ ho-hum”,“ho-hum” 的意思是我不在乎。

  R: 我们想起不少类似的词汇,有一个词我的孩子们常挂在嘴边,就是 "Whatever."。“你现在吃晚饭吗?” “Whatever”。“你做作业了吗?”“Whatever”。 建议大家学习英文,要注意学习词组,而不是一个单词一个单词地记。学会句子中的词组是非常有帮助的。留心老师的发音和地道的英语发音,或者听电影台词,注意其中包含的短语或词组。留心说话者的声调,注意升调和降调的区别,这会使你讲的英文标准起来。

  E: 听上去有韵味。所以请注意:当你用降调说 “Peter!” 意思是我生气了,你不该那么做。而用升调说 “Peter?” 是表达你在哪里。而用三声说 “Peter?” 则是对他的能力表示怀疑。

  R: 我想强调一下,请耐心地对待学习中文的外国朋友,当然也包括我在内。因为我们习惯了英文的发音方法,要掌握中文的发音规则很难。

  每当我用中文提问的时候,有时还会用习惯用升调。所以外国朋友讲的不太标准的中文,你们听来很难懂。

  E: 还要留意一点:如果你高声讲话,外国人容易误解为你生气了,因为你的语调较重声音也较大。还想提醒大家,讲话的音量是很重要的,

  西方人讲话时往往音量比较低,除非你真的生气了。这是一点小小的提示。


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