He said / She said

One of the mistakes that I have noticed Chinese people making when speaking English is the misuse of the pronouns he and she. It is very common for a student to be talking to me or the class about a friend who is generally a she (since almost all of my students are female) and accidentally refer to her as he.

Even some of the most experienced speakers of English as a second language such as our director, Madison, and our Chinese tutor, Ruth, will occasionally make this mistake.

My guess to the reason for all of this pronoun confusion is that in spoken Mandarin, he, she and it are pronounced, respectively as: ta, ta and ta (all in the first tone). Though the written characters are different (他，她，它), when listening, it can be very difficult for someone learning the language to tell whether someone is in fact referring to a he, she or an it without the proper context.

Since the distinction for the use of the pronoun in spoken Mandarin is made from the context surrounding the "ta," I think that perhaps it is hard for the students to remember that in spoken English you must use the correct pronoun or else confusion results.