Panda Cub Stories | Edutaining content around Chinese culture, language and mental health

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Mandarin Tones (Kitteh-Style)


UPDATE: This comic is now a poster, and a notebook!


Several months ago, I came across a post on SAT… someone explaining Mandarin tones to his GF using cat Meows (𝘔𝘦𝘰𝘸. 𝘔𝘦𝘰𝘸? 𝘔𝘦𝘰𝘸… 𝘔𝘌𝘖𝘞!). After snort-laughing for a spell, I decided to make a comic based on that post. ⁣

I got a lot of feedback on that post (including suggestions on how to make it better/more educational). SO! Today’s comic is KITTEH-TONES REDRAW, featuring Panda, Hedgie, and Howl… and hopefully providing more EDU 🤓. ⁣

𝐏.𝐒. for more educational 哈哈’s, follow me @pandacubstories , or grab the free Ebook off 我的 website! (𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘪𝘰 👆🏻)⁣
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𝐂 𝐎 𝐌 𝐈 𝐂 𝐓.𝐎.𝐂. ⁣

1️⃣ST Panel = KITTEH-TONES⁣

2️⃣ND Panel = TONES EXAMPLES ⁣

3️⃣RD Panel = comic read-along⁣

LAST Panel = Kibble ‘Battle’ Video⁣

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WHAT ARE TONES? (& WHY LEARN THEM?) ⁣

1️⃣ TONES & MEANING⁣

You’ve probably heard that Chinese is “tonal language” (and if u hadn’t… u have now!). Depending on what tone of voice (or voice inflection) you use, you can end up saying completely different words. ⁣

🐼: 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘸/ 𝘺𝘰 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴… ⁣
🦔: 𝘰𝘳 𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘖𝘔 (妈/𝘔𝘢̄) 𝘢 𝘏𝘖𝘙𝘚𝘌 (马𝘮𝘢̌) ⁣
🐼: 𝘩𝘶 𝘩𝘶 𝘩𝘶 🤣 .⁣

2️⃣ TONES & (FURTHER) LEARNING⁣

First learning pronunciation makes speaking, comprehending, and picking up new vocab much, MUCH easier as you travel further in your CN learning journey. ⁣

🦔:𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘬 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳! ⁣
🐼: 𝘠𝘰⁣

Alrighty y’all! That’s it for today! ’Til the next post…再见 👋⁣

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G L O S S A R Y⁣

妈(媽)(Mā) Mom⁣
麻(má) Hemp⁣
大麻(dàmá) (literally BIG+HEMP) Marijuana⁣
马(馬)(mǎ) horse⁣
骂(罵)(mà) scold ; curse⁣