15 August 2008

Pronouncing Chinese

I've got fed up with the BBC and other channels covering the Beijing olympics. They obviously don't brief their readers and anchors like they used to. I'm pretty certain that it used to be the case that they would have guidance or even tuition to pronounce foreign words something like correctly. Judging by what I keep hearing, that hasn't been happening. So, guys, pronouncing Beijing as if the 'j' is French (and don't think I haven't noticed that you tend to make the same mistake with Hindi/Urdu) is not right. Check the table on this page: Language: Introductory Guide to Pronouncing Chinese.
Now I feel better for getting that off my chest.

PS. YOu might like to have a look at this article, on the same topic and the comments are informative too.

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