u/nhatquangdinh

english article: https://thevietnamese.org/2026/08/former-deputy-nguyen-sy-cuong-trends-on-vietnamese-social-media-following-rap-album-censorship/

vietnamese article: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/trong-nuoc/2026/08/13/nguyen-sy-cuong-tai-nan-nu/

Does your tongue feel absolutely miserable when you pronounce the initials /zh/, /ch/ and /sh/? Well, you aren't supposed to.

The three consonants that I just mentioned are traditionally transcribed into IPA as /tʂ/, /tʂʰ/ and /ʂ/, respectively and described as being "retroflex", i.e. pronounced with the tip of the tongue curled towards the hard palate (or the roof of your mouth cavity), as shown in the first image. However, a study on native Chinese speakers from Beijing has shown a different answer.

In 1984 (yes), two linguists, Peter Ladefoged and Wu Zongji, researched three Beijingers, who were made to pronounce the three so-called "retroflex" consonants. The results were that none of them curled their tongues back; the place of articulation is instead better described as postalveolar (when the tongue retracts but doesn't curl back), as shown in the images above. See how the tongue shapes are completely different from the proper retroflex shape in the first picture? In other words, they should be transcribed as /tʃ/, /tʃʰ/ and /ʃ/ respectively instead.

The original research paper can be found here.

So yeah, you can save yourself the hassle and just pronounce them like in English. Just remember that /zh/ isn't aspirated, and you'll sound just as native as it can get.

Note: This is for those who want to master their penmanship and already know the stroke orders. For PC users only.

Step 1. Download and install Klee One, a Kyokasho-based font (and therefore shows the proper way to write), from Google Fonts.

Step 2. Go to this website. I know it's for Chinese writing practice, but kanji is still supported anyway.

Step 3. Enter kanji. Although it says "limit 200 characters", you can actually enter as many as you want, because, as you can see here, I actually input 2136 joyo kanji and 864 jinmeiyo kanji (so 3000 in total) with no problem at all.

Step 4. Choose "Characters and one empty line below" in the "Character type" section.

Step 5. In the "Typeface" section, choose "Custom", and in the "Custom typeface" field, enter "Klee One" to use the namesake font that we already installed in Step 1.

Step 6 (optional). Open the advanced settings.

Step 7 (optional). Freely change the header to anything you want.

Step 8: Press "Generate".

Step 9: Print/save as PDF and enjoy your worksheets!