Chinese pronunciation tip 1: Beijing, Zhongguo, Zhang

James Harbeck of Sesquiotica give you advice on saying J and ZH in Chinese words such as Beijing, Zhongguo, and Zhang

[johnfalkenstine]

I took Mandarin classes at the University of Arizona in 1973. There were three teachers for the summer session. A huge amount of time was spent on pronunciation and tonality. High-pressure classes during the summer term. Classes all morning and cramming in the afternoon. I didn't like the books very much so I wrote a letter to Guozi Shudian and surprisingly, they sent me a phrase book, which I still have. Last week some student kids from China stepped in front of my car and surprisingly, some angry Mandarin came out after all of that time and my pronunciation was still quite good. I think it's a beautiful language.

[sauloviedo]

After a year and a half of studying Chinese, I finally learned the correct pronunciation of "ZH".

[gomongio]

I must admit that, "Baby, please Zhongguo", caught me off guard. Hahaha.

[ambulocetusnatans]

I was talking to a Chinese girl who speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese and I said Cantonese always sounds like they're angry and Mandarin sounds more pleasant. She said it sounded the other way around to her. Different perspective, I suppose.

[ThierryTiramisu]

3:50 oh no, baby, please ZHONGGUO.
LOVE 😍 IT! 😉 😂

[gedgar]

This is so interesting, i found this video while theorizing about this exact topic. Bayzhing is the pronunciation ive heard (in English) my whole life…

[Rayz]

James, I finally meet someone as passionate about Chinese pronunciation as I am. It irks me, that after pinyin was introduced to correct the mistakes of the Wade-Giles system. Westerners STILL get it wrong, especially with "Beijing", which is so simple.

[thisismycoolnickname]

Good video, but it must be pointed out that it's not exactly the fault of the alphabet. The problem is that languages that use the roman alphabet, when borrowing, don't adapt words to their own language. They preserve the original graphical appearance of the word, and that's why it causes problems everywhere.

[lflee]

Don't know if you were intending to make fun of it, you used the first tone (instead of the third) for the word Bei in the last (reinforcing) sentence in the video 😏

[junethanoschurchill]

I think “Peking” comes from the Cantonese pronunciation, which sounds more like “Buckging”

[robot]

My only wonder is how come at one point it was Peking. Sometimes B becomes a sound like P in chinese like in Bu (for 'not')

[lodhurr]

Are you sure Peking isn't pronounced differently from Beijing? Even though it is the same city, it may have been an attempt to romanize the pronunciation from a different Chinese language. It would be like saying "China" and "Zhongguo" should be pronounced the same because they are the same country.

[ThierryTiramisu]

2:11 I am here to tell you that...
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!! 😉 😂

[Rayz]

James, thanks. Great video. But sadly, it's a hopeless cause. I've been correcting my friends, but it makes no difference. Even news broadcasters, and China "experts" mispronounce it.

[curtismetzgar]

Dito on the thanks! Your videos are greatly appreciated. What I'm walking away from them with is the conviction that the Pinyin system is almost as screwed up as it's predecessor. Your roman alphabet representations in quotes underneath the Pinyin are far more as Bayjing as opposed to Beijing. We need a more accurate Romanization to replace Pinyin. Who the hell came up with that anyway?!

[DigitalYojimbo]

you can get closer, whoever translated it was lazy.

[mgtowvalues]

"They" have purposefully made it difficult to access the Chinese language. English speakers should unite and protest the IPA - those academics were foolish.

[miguelmontojo]

sir you’re doing a great job but please stop with the jokes, they’re cringy :<