It's pronounced "Xiao Zi"

(John again)
I was trying to think how to explain the pronunciation of his name and all that would come to me was "well, it's got the 'iao' in there so it sounds like that" so while that means I may actually be making some progress on thinking in Mandarin, that not actually useful to anyone. So, let me stumble through explaining and I'll know that sound in the distance is TC & Erik laughing as they watch me try...

It's actually pretty straight forward: The 'X' is a 'sh' sound and the 'iao' is an 'ow' (as in ouch) sound so put them together and it's like chow with a 'sh' at the begining. And it's one sylable, so 'show' (with the ow as in ouch, not as in 'o') is pretty close. And I can't off hand remember the tone, but I think it's third tone which is an abrubt/downward sound like ending a sentence with a period.

'Zi' is a bit trickier and I don't think I really know how to say it well and no matter how many times I hear our guide say it, I'm not replicating it well. Which is sort of pathetic given how simple of a sound it is, but she also has a few year more immersion in the language than I have. Anyway, I think it has a tiny bit of a 't' sound at the beginning of it (or is that 'zh'?) so I'm saying it as a 'ts' sound. Basically do a 'z' sound and just tap your tounge against your teeth when you start it. And the 'i' is as in ship, but pretty clipped. Probably also third tone.

So 'Show' as in 'ow' and then 'tsi'. Man, words are hard to communicate something that needs to be heard.

Okay, so 'Joshua' is pronounced....