NTU Speech Corpus for L2 Mandarin
NTU Speech Corpus for L2 Mandarin
This corpus comprises audio recordings of beginner and intermediate Mandarin learners from American, Japanese, French, and Spanish backgrounds reading identical text passages. Written consent was obtained from all participants for the publication of their spoken data. The corpus is designed to support cross-linguistic comparative analyses, allowing researchers to investigate both shared patterns and distinctive features in the phonetic acquisition of Mandarin by learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Researchers are welcome to utilize and download the data, citing it as the NTU Speech Corpus for L2 Mandarin in their work.
Fundings for this project: MOST 110-2410-H-002-106; NSC 112-2410-H-002-061-MY2
Beginner level
Intermediate level
他們都很忙。我家有四口人:爸爸媽媽哥哥和我。我家還有一隻小黑狗和一隻大花貓。我父親是一個有名的大夫。我母親是中學英語老師。他們都非常忙。我哥哥是大學生,學中文。他個子很高、比較胖。他的同學都叫他胖子。他的女朋友很漂亮,是日本人。我的小狗叫黑黑。小貓的名字呢,是花花。你看,這是我們家。我們家的房子不大也不小。有四個房間。還有一個非常好看的小花園。我的房間不太大。裡邊有一張小桌子兩把椅子和一張床。
They are all busy. There are four people in my family: my parents, my older brother, and me. We also have a little black dog and a big tabby cat. My father is a renowned doctor, and my mother is a high school English teacher. They are both very busy. My older brother is a college student studying Mandarin. He is tall and chubby, and his classmates call him Fatty. His girlfriend is beautiful; she is Japanese.
Our dog is called Hei-hei, and the cat’s name is Hua-hua. Look! This is our home. Our house is neither big nor small. It has four rooms and a very beautiful little garden. My room is not big, but it has a small desk, two chairs, and a bed.
今天早上我有一節聽力課。大概昨天夜裡沒睡好,所以起晚了。這下我急壞了,因為開學才半個多月,我已經遲到過兩次了!老師不但記住了我的名字,而且還說,下一次我要是再遲到的話,他就不讓我進教室了。
我想去洗洗臉,哎?洗澡間的燈怎麽不亮了?算了,反正沒時間了。我又穿上昨天脫下的那身衣服,騎上車就往學校趕。
教室裡坐著很多學生,可是安靜極了,連一點兒聲音也沒有。看來老師還沒到。我趕快找到一個空座位坐好。這個時候,我忽然發現,周圍的人都是我的中學同學,每個人的面前還擺著一本數學課本。太奇怪了,這節課不是聽力嗎?怎麽會變成了我最討厭的高中數學課呢?還有,我跟同學們打招呼,他們都不答應,只是看著我笑。笑什麽?是因為我沒洗臉,沒梳頭,也沒刮胡子,還是因為我又穿了兩只顏色不同的襪子?正當我不知道該怎麽辦的時候,「叮鈴鈴」,上課鈴響了。
我一下子就醒了,睜開眼睛,看了看床頭的鬧鐘:六點半。我打開窗戶,天還沒亮呢。我呼吸了一口新鮮空氣,心裡得意地想,今天肯定不會遲到了。
I had a listening class this morning. I probably got up late because I didn’t sleep well last night. I was so worried—I’ve already been late for classes twice this semester! The teacher not only remembered me but also warned me that if I was late again, he wouldn’t let me into the classroom.
I wanted to wash my face. Why wasn’t the light in the bathroom working? Forget it. I didn’t have enough time anyway. I threw on the clothes I wore yesterday and rode my bike straight to school.
The classroom was packed with students, but they were all so quiet. I didn’t hear a sound. It seemed the teacher wasn’t there yet. I found an empty seat and sat down. At that moment, I realized the people around me were my high school classmates, and they all had math textbooks in front of them. I thought, That’s odd. Isn’t this supposed to be a listening class? Why is it the math class I hated the most in high school? My classmates didn’t reply when I waved at them. They only laughed. Why are they laughing? Was it because I didn’t wash my face, brush my hair, or shave? Or was it because I was wearing two socks of different colors? Just as I didn’t know what to do, Ding… The bell rang.
I woke up immediately. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock beside the bed: 6 o’clock. I opened the window. The sun hadn’t risen yet. I took a breath of fresh air and thought to myself proudly, I will definitely not be late today.