Russian student in Hunan: understanding accented Mandarin in Changsha

艾乐，俄罗斯人，在中南大学留学已两年。来中国之前就听说中文很难，考上大学后，她毅然选择了中文专业。“我就想证明，中文是可以学好的。”

Aile, a Russian, has been studying at Central South University for two years. She says, "before I came to China, I heard that Chinese was very difficult." She decided to choose Chinese as her major when she was enrolled in college, "I want to prove that I can learn Chinese well."

声调是她学习路上的“拦路虎”，加上长沙人的“塑普话”，艾乐闹了不少笑话。“有一次去买水果，没看价格，售货员说是10块钱，也不知道是他发音不标准还是我听错了，我以为是4块钱，给他5块。他坚决不收5块，反复念着10块、10块，我坚持把钱给他，两个人拉扯着。最后他急了，又不停说‘N0、N0、N0’。”

To distinguish tones is hard for her study, especially with the accented Mandarin of Changsha people, so Aile had a lot of misunderstandings. "I once went to buy some fruits, I didn't look at the price. The salesperson said that it was 10 yuan with accented sound 'si' (similar with 'four') instead of 'shi' ('ten' in standard Mandarin). I didn't know if he pronounced a standard pronunciation or I got it wrong. I thought that it was 4 yuan and gave him a 5-yuan-bill. He insisted on not receiving it by repeatedly telling me 'si' yuan; I insisted on giving him the money. He was kept saying 'N0, N0, N0' and anxiously posed 'ten', finally, I understood."

艾乐学习中文的方法是多听、多说、多写、多读，她经常利用购物、看电影等机会跟中国人交流。慢慢地，她听懂了中文。逐渐地，她能够跟中国人对话。现在，她中文十分“地道”，高级词汇、四字成语张口就来，甚至能领会到不同语境下，相同文字的不同意义。

Aile's way of learning Chinese is to listen more, talk more, write more, and read more. She often goes shopping, watching movies and communicating with local people. Slowly and Gradually, she understands Chinese, and her Chinese is very "authentic" now, with advanced vocabulary, four-character idioms, and she understands the different pragmatic meanings of the same text in different contexts.

Link: 视频丨俄罗斯小姐姐艾乐教你听懂长沙塑料普通话