Ci sin zi zyu - a crazy spider

I have been introduced to www.italki.com, a language learning community social website, by Ee-Tan, a friend who is an avid Italian language learner.

I am thinking it might be more successful learning Mandarin in a social network. I have just started and I'd have to see if it can be sustainable for me. Most of my attempts using various tools have not had much lasting power on me.

I also came across this interesting bit in CNN today:

Try saying "ci sin zi zyu di zi zyu si ci zyu zi syu zi." The Cantonese tongue twister means "a crazy spider's spider web sticks on a tree branch." The four zi in the sentence all share the same tone but have two different meanings.

Took me awhile to figure it out, tone wise, (since the romanized words are not entirely accurate) and now I can actually say it quite quickly.

My first ever Chinese, or most precisely Cantonese, tongue twister.

pearlie