Tongue Twisters= rào kǒu lìng, 绕口令

Like I mentioned in Building a Foundation. If you work hard and perfect your tones it will drastically affect your communication abilities when speaking with the Locals. Just think of the last time you had a conversation with someone whose native language wasn’t your own. Whether it was a class in school where the professors accent caused you to miss most, if not all, of the lesson, or just a conversation with a friend or someone on the street. If they had good pronunciation and spoke clearly it then it was probably much easier to relax and speak your mind. If their accent was overwhelmingly strong it probably felt like you were watching a movie with the volume turned way down, and you have to strain your ears and focus just to put what they are saying in some comprehensible format… and quite possibly just ended up giving you a headache or causing you to think of ways to get out of the situation…”sorry, I need to go jump off a bridge.” or asking questions like, “do you happen to have any paper and lemon juice that I can borrow?” With that in mind! It is pretty bad being on the receiving end of these types of conversations, but what I don’t want you to be is the one giving the headaches. So with out further adeau I present to you a couple practices to keep those tones and pronunciation in check.

Instead of just going over past vocab for pronunciation practice I normally enjoy doing tongue twisters or reading a poem or short story OUT-LOUD. Here are few popular tongue twisters to get you started.

1. sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shísì shì shísì, sìshí shì sìshí, sìshísì zhī shí shī zǐ shì sǐ de.

四是四， 十是十， 十四是十四，四十是四十，四十四只石狮子是死的

2. chī pútáo bù tǔ pútáo pí, bù chī pútáo dào tǔ pútáo pí

吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮，不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮。

3. māmā qí mǎ, mǎ màn māmā mà mǎ.

妈妈骑马， 马慢妈妈骂马。

4. héshàng dūantāng shàng tǎ, tǎ húa tāng sǎtāng tàng tǎ.

和尚端烫上塔，塔滑洒汤烫塔。

5. bàozhe hūijī shàng fēijī, fēijī qǐfēi hūi jī yào fēi.

抱着灰鸡上飞机，飞机起飞灰鸡要飞。

6. bǐandan cháng, bǎndèng kūan, bǐandan bǐ bǎndèng cháng, bǎndèng bǐ bǐandan kūan,

bǐandan bǎng zài le bǎndèng shàng, bǎndèng bú ràng bǐandan fēi yào bǎng zài bǎndèng

shàng.

扁 担 长 ， 板 凳 宽 ， 扁 担 比 板 凳 长 ， 板 凳 比 扁 担 宽 ， 扁 担 绑 在 了 板 凳 上 ， 板

凳 不 让 扁 担 绑 在 板 凳 上 ， 扁 担 非 要 绑 在 板 凳 上 。

7. sānyùe sān, xǐaosān qù dēng shān. shàng shān yòu xìa shān, xìa shān yòu shàng shān. dēngle sāncì shān, pǎole sān lǐ sān. chūle yìshēn hàn, shī le sān jìan shān. xǐaosān shān shàng dà shēng hàn: “lítīan zhǐ yǒu sān chǐ sān!”

三月三，小三去登山。上山又下山，下山又上山。登了三次山，跑了三里三。出了一身汗，湿了三件衫。小三山上大声喊：“离天只有三尺三！”

A few more for fun:

With pinyin

link1

link2

Only chinese characters:

link1

link2

If you find one that is not on my list that you really like and feels really helps out add it in your comment!