How to pronunce "ji" (chicken)?
The consonant sound written with j- in Pinyin does not exist in English, so using English words to approximate it will always be wrong to some extent.
Pinyin j consists of two sounds, a stop and a fricative. Let's start with the fricative, written [ɕ] in IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) and x in Pinyin.
To produce this sound, place the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth ridge (that's the &quot;shelf&quot; you can feel behind your lower teeth), then try to say &quot;sh&quot; as in English &quot;she&quot;, without moving the tongue tip. This will result in thicker-sounding s, produced with the blade of the tongue (further back than the tip, which is involved when you say a normal s).
To get to j-, simply add a small stop in front of the fricative we just learnt. That means briefly stopping the airflow, then letting it out while producing the [ɕ] sound. That results in [t͡ɕ], which is how j is written using IPA.
Note that if you release the air forcefully, you get aspiration, which is used to distinguish phonemes in Mandarin, so instead of j-, you'd be pronouncing q- instead. The aspiration is written with a superscript &quot;h&quot;, so qi is [t͡ɕʰ] in IPA. j- should not be aspirated. It should not be voiced either.
The -i bit shouldn't cause too much trouble. It's pronounced [i], which is the same sound as in English &quot;free&quot;, although a bit further forward and more closed. The difference is not very big.
鸡/雞, jī, &quot;chicken&quot;, IPA: [t͡ɕi], with a high, flat tone.
If forced to choose between the alternatives you gave, then &quot;dj&quot; is probably closer because it also combines a stop with a fricative (called an affricate). Note that both the stop itself and the fricative are the wrong ones, though. &quot;dj&quot; in English is voiced, whereas Pinyin j- is not. However, note that initial consonants in English are often not voiced either (or not clearly so at least), so in practice, the pronunciation is rather close); see commend by John Frazer below. The tongue position is also different, as explained above.