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Q: Is Mandarin not the standard language?
Is it not standard? I see there are local dialects, which I don't understand the difference.
In my experience the difference can be quite slight from one place to another, but when the language takes stepping stones from one dialect to another and then another, the eventual difference found can become quite extreme.
The further you are from the north the more you will notice the difference........the closer you are to the south it's totally different from what you expect to be standard chinese or putonghua......the most standard chinese is not even spoken in beijing.....iit's spoken in dongbei and the area in the far north of china like harbin
I saw in Guangxi that there are local dialects, but I never understood the difference. Are the words than much difference or the pronounciations?
The further you are from the north the more you will notice the difference........the closer you are to the south it's totally different from what you expect to be standard chinese or putonghua......the most standard chinese is not even spoken in beijing.....iit's spoken in dongbei and the area in the far north of china like harbin
What is standard English? Even a small country like England, the origin of the language - everyone doesn't sound like Prince Charles!
GuilinRaf:
I like how Jason Statham speaks when he is not imitating an American accent. To me at least, he sounds more tough that way!
Sidicas:
GuilinRaf:
You do realize that the "American accent" you speak of doesn't actually exist, right? Americans speak the original English as it was hundreds of years ago, it was the British that "gained an accent" or more correctly "non-rhotic" speech that was passed down from the rich upper class in Europe. British English is what has been changing in the past several hundred years, not American English.
Every city seems to have its own "dialect," which in many cases is more like a different language. It's especially noticeable working at a college, because the students are from all over the place, and the differences in how they pronounce Mandarin are noticeable. Chinese people would tell me (in English) that their Chinese was bad. A lot of them learn Mandarin as a second language, so their pronunciation is not perfect. They may not know enough standard Mandarin words, or they may use different ones. They may not remember the right tone for everything, or different tones may be used in different places. It gets...confusing. I don't know if the real standard Mandarin is spoken anywhere, but there are places where they speak some kind of Mandarin as their first language.
That's why learning a characters is so important.
China is huge country, and there are hundreds of dialects. Then if somebody can not communicate with You in mandarin - this might be only way. They are unified, and anybody at age, let say... under 50 (or so) should have no problem with most common signs.
And that is why They gives You sometimes pen and paper if They don't understand You - in hope that You can write it...
GuilinRaf:
So true!
Even among the Chinese you see this as they "write" the word in the air or on each others hands. Or they will use similar words to describe which word they mean. For example, "chong ming" can mean clever, and it can mean an island. So, if i mean the one that sounds like the island I will say "chong ming dao de chong ming" (Chong ming as in chong ming island) that way they know that I do not mean "clever".
I've found that Chinese people who come from other provinces have very little chance of understanding the local language here in Ningbo, much less being able to speak it (for example, someone coming from Hubei or Henan). But, some other people from another city WITHIN the same province of Zhejiang, they can usually have a basic understanding of what is being said, as the local language in Ningbo is not going to be too terribly different from their own local language. There are of course exceptions, for example around Wenzhou and Taizhou, there are some local dialects that are more akin to Cantonese and Taiwanhua.
So basically, it's all a mess. If they can't speak to me in Putonghua, then I just shrug my shoulders and use the same line as I always do.....ting bu dong.
Wow, you've walked straight into one of my problems in learning 'Chinese'.
As you (and many others) have mentioned China has lots of regional language differences, these range from totally separate officially recognised languages complete with distinct language structures, through mini-languages down to very strong regional dialects, (think Glaswegian 'English' compared to Cornish 'English' compared to London 'English).
In my adopted home town of Nanning, the common language us Guangdonghua, and all children speak it, unless they are not natives of Nanning. Additionally there is a strong Nanning variation, which in my family we call Nanninghua. the children usually grow up speaking Guangdonghua and Nanninghua. Then when they go to kindergarten or primary school the 'official' language is Putonghua (Mandarin), and that quickly becomes their primary language, (you spend more time speaking to 'friends and teachers' at school than family). This is exactly what happened to my wife and is what is now happening to my daughter, although we have added the 'complication' of English too, so now at 2 years of ages she speaks bits of four languages.
So to answer your question, yes Mandarin is the 'official' language and should be spoken at the very least in all official buildings, but it is by no means the only language. Cultural diversity is alive and well in China!
You all make me wonder...is it worth all the effort I put into learning mandarin???
GuilinRaf:
I would say definitely! It gives you greater independence, after all ,we are grownups and really do not want to have someone with us every single time we want to go out. The bonus is that even if you suck at it, the mere fact that you try, they become very happy (though sometimes they go overboard, like the taxi driver who says that my Chinese is excellent and gives me thumbs up even though all I said was "Ni hao").
I was getting a bit frustrated in Guilin as my mandarin topped out after two years and did not really improve after that until coming to Beijing. Now it has improved quite a bit (though I am not yet fluent) and I have hope of getting better.
daniel, sure... because it IS official language here, but don't forget to learn basics in written too, without it - You can be understood only by those, who have constant contact with this "official" language
knowing just survival basics of mandarin I AM understood in most situations (when I can use it) in Guangdong even when here is commonly used Guangondhua, and some dialects (Taishanhua, etc.)
