The Mid-Autumn Festival(Zhongqiujie) known as the Moon Festival , the third and last festival for the living, was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox.This day was also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival , it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a “complete year,” that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

Why Learn Chinese Pronunciation?Why would one want to do so much for correct pronunciation of Chinese?

There are several factors to consider for learning Chinese pronunciation. Maybe the most important reason would be that the native Chinese speakers appreciate correct pronunciation far more than correct grammar. That is quite reasonable, just consider what the benefit of having perfectly correct grammar is, if none of the words are understood.

Second, if you get the Mandarin pronunciation wrong from the beginning, it will be a lot harder to correct later. What adds to that point, is the fact that learning Chinese pronunciation does have a few similarities with English, but it does also have quite a few difficult differences.

The third reason is a bit softer, but not to be neglected though. When you have good Chinese pronunciation, the Chinese will commend you for speaking their language very clearly and being easy to understand, adding to your self-confidence, and encouraging you to continue extending your vocabulary and knowledge of grammar.

Chinese is a tonal language. Tones are the changes of the pitch in pronunciation of a syllable. There are 4 tones in Mandarin Chinese. Each Chinese word (character) carries a tone. Different tones carry different meanings.

Click on the Pinyin in the table below you will hear different tones.

Here I will show you how to use Chinese number Gestures. Perhaps when you happened to travel to a small town in China where the folks are only able to speak local language instead of Mandarin. The Chinese body language looks helpful in this situation. The following gestures indicate the number from one to ten:

Learn Pinyin

Chinese Pinyin is a Roman-letter based system that China now uses to mark the pronunciation of Chinese characters. With four tones and pinyin, any Chinese characters can be pronounced precisely. In many cases, Pinyin is quite intuitive to English speakers with only a few exceptions. However, it can be a twist to render Pinyin in four tones for people who just start.

Pinyin is made up of 2 tables: vowel table and consonant table

Pinyin – Vowels

a	o	e	i	u	ϋ
ai	ei	ui
ao	ou	iu
ie	ue	er
an	en	in	un	ϋn
ang	eng	ing	ong

As you can see, most vowels are simply a combination of the 6 major vowels in the first row, which is obviously the most important part, and some special consonants.

How can you remember all this? We are putting all these into English words with virtually the same sound for you to learn and remember in an easier way.

*Note: letters in the following explanation in “…” are pronounced as in English, and those in ‘… ‘ are pronounced in Pinyin. Also, all samples are delivered in 4 tones.

a – as the vowel in “star” without the “r” sound

o – as the vowel in “law”

e – as the vowel in “stir”

i – as the vowel in “bit”

u – as the vowel in “food”

ϋ – as “y” in “yellow” followed by the ‘u’ above

ai – as the vowel in “bike”

ei – as the vowel in “lake”

ui – combination of ‘u’ and ‘i’, the same as word “we” in English

ao – as the vowel in “loud”

ou – as the vowel in “flow”

iu – combination of ‘i’ and ‘u’, the same as word “yew” in English

ie – combination of ‘i’ and ‘e’, as the vowel in “sierra”

ue – combination of ‘u’ and ‘e’, as the vowel in “buena”

er – combination of ‘e’ and ‘r’, as the vowel in “early”

an – as the vowel in “anchor”:

en – as the word “earn” without the “r” sound:

in – as in the word “inn”

un – as in the word “one”:

ϋn – as “y” in “yellow” followed by the English word “one”

ang – as the word “long”

eng – as the vowel in “lung”

ing – as the vowel in “England”

ong – as ‘u’ followed by the ‘ng’ as above:

Consonant Table:

b	p	m	f	d	t
n	l	g	k	h	j
q	x
z	c	s	r
zh	ch	sh
y	w

For consonants, we also put all these into English words with the same sound for you to learn and remember in an easier way.

*Note: We pronounce these consonants followed by some vowels that can help deliver the sound more clearly. Letters in the following explanation in “…” are pronounced as in English, and those in ‘… ‘ are pronounced in Pinyin.

b – as the “b” in “book”

p – as the “p” in “pool”

m – as the “m” in “moon”

f – as the “f” in “food”

d – as the “d” in “door”

t – as the “t” in “tom”

n – as the “n” in “no”

l – as the “l” in “love”

g – as the “g” in good”

k – as the “k” in “kill”

h- as the “h” in “high”

j- as the “j” in “jeep”

q- as the “ch” in “cheese”

x- as the “sh” in “sharp”

z- as the “z” in “zero”

c- as the “ts” in “tsunami”

s- as the “s” in “sun”

r- as the “r” in “red”

zh- start with ‘j’ in “jeep”, but then end smoothly with “r” sound. The first 2 sounds in the sample voice show such move.

ch- start with ‘q’ in “cheese”, but then end smoothly with “r” sound. The first 2 sounds in the sample voice show such move.

sh – start with ‘x’ in “sharp”, but then end smoothly with “r” sound. The first 2 sounds in the sample voice show such move.

( ‘zh, ch, sh’ are similar to, but strictly different from ‘j, q, x’ respectively. However, mixing them is not a too big problem for you to be understood in China.)

y- as the “y” in “yes”

w- as the “w” in “wood”