Is this an abbreviation ?

So, i'm Chinese-american, but as I was young, i learned a bit of Chinese from my grandma, who I guess either taught me wrong, or had an accent. everyone always complains when I speak Chinese, saying I sound Taiwanese, and or just plain american and that I say everything wrong. so here's my question. How can I learn Chinese pronunciation better? I don't understand the tones for pinyin, they all sound alike for me, can someone give me a quick lesson, or point me in the direction I want to go to learn better pronunciation? I want to be also able to have an accent, so that when I go to Taiwan next year, they won't know i'm from America...

This part of a dialogue. What kind of tone of voice for "o" and "ya"? li tai chung..."o", shi ni "ya"...ni hao, ni hao

newbees

I find it really difficult to differentiate between the second pinyin tone and the third pinyin tone. Can you please help me?

Many of my students use "It's nice to meet you" as a greeting when they actually mean "It's nice to see you." In English, the two phrases have two clearly distinctive meanings. I'm assuming that they are using a literal translation of "见面." Is there a major difference in how 见面 or 看见 are used in Chinese? I'd like to make the differences in English clear but I want to make sure I am using clear examples in Chinese. My students aren't English majors (and this year, none of them were undergraduate English majors either!) so subtle distinctions aren't that easy for them to understand. Thanks. I guess I'm looking for the best way to explain to my students the difference between "It's nice to meet you" vs "It's nice to see you." There's a very clear difference in English . . . is there a clear difference in Chinese? In other words, what would the Chinese be for "It's nice to meet you" (first time meeting)? What would be the Chinese for "It's nice to see you" (used when you see someone on the street as you are out shopping, etc.)?

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