there is no one Chinese language, within China people speak a variety of different languages and dialects

but there are some general accent features that most Chinese people have when speaking English

in this video I'm going to show you some of those features

and I'm going to be using clips of actor Jackie Chan to show you what I mean

languages have restrictions on where consonants can be and how many consonants are allowed to be together in a word

Chinese languages usually don't like consonants at the ends of words or multiple consonants together

so when a Chinese person speaks English, they may unconsciously keep to these restrictions

for example

if an English word ends in two consonants the final consonant may be deleted to avoid multiple consonants being together

listen to how Jackie Chan says jump, stunt, and script. He deletes the final consonant

the same process happens in the middle of a word. In the word action we've got a /k/ and a /ʃ/ sound

Jackie Chan deletes the /k/, so action becomes action

listen to this next clip and also notice how he deletes the final consonant sound of audience and world

it can also happen at the beginning of a word

so Bruce Lee becomes simplified to Buce Lee.

if one word ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a consonant

Chinese speakers may insert a vowel to break up this consonant sequence

listen to Jackie Chan say

his stunt

bus station and this script

notice how he inserts a vowel sound

Chinese has a very different rhythm compared to English

a Chinese speaker tends to stress more syllables in a sentence compared to an English speaker

this may give the impression of a flat, staccato rhythm

listen to Jackie Chan

he's stressing most of the words in the sentence equally, whereas I would only stress the most important words, for example:

the first time I met Chris Tucker we tried to make Rush Hour 1

Dark Ls in English are Ls with no vowel sound after them

when a Chinese person says a Dark L, they may turn it into a vowel sound

listen to me say roll

and table

now listen to Jackie Chan

and when Jackie Chan says too old it sounds like to owe

because the final consonant is deleted and then the L turns into a vowel

when a word ends with an N sound, it may be deleted or turned into an NG /ŋ/ sound by a Chinese speaker

the vowel before may be nasalised

listen to me say question, when, champion

now listen to Jackie Chan

/w/ and /v/ are two sounds that a Chinese person may confuse when speaking in English

so with and walk may be pronounced with a /v/ sound instead

the terms voiced and voiceless

describe whether a sound is made with the vocal folds vibrating or not

if you make a long /v/ sound you can feel your vocal folds vibrating inside your larynx

if you make a long F sound, it's not vibrating

when a Chinese person speaks in English voiced sounds at the ends of words tend to become voiceless, so live

becomes lif

the voiced B in grab sounds more like a voiceless P sound

and the voiced D sound in said and Brad is turned into a glottal stop

a glottal stop is made when the vocal folds quickly close inside the larynx

it sounds like the vowel is stopped suddenly, so said and Brad turn into saiʔ Braʔ

there are a few accent features that are specific to certain languages and dialects within China, so not every Chinese speaker will have problems

there may be confusions between an N and an L sound

when Jackie Chan says another

the first time he uses an N and the second time, it sounds closer to an L

some speakers may mix up Ls and Rs

so when Jackie Chan says far away notice how the R sounds closer to an L sound

for some speakers, /ʃ/ sounds will turn into /s/ sounds

this means words like English and Schwarzenegger

will turn into Englis and Swarzenegger

these are just some of the features that create a Chinese accents in English

of course, there are others including vowel sounds but I don't have time to cover everything in one video

if you've enjoyed this video, then please like it and share it with your Chinese friends

if you're a non-native English speaker and you want to improve your English pronunciation

then take my online English pronunciation course

go to my website to find out more