Chinese Character - Taiwanese accent -

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Taiwanese accent
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jie2li4 -

I'm seriously considering spending a year in Taiwan to improve my Mandarin, which is now somewhere
around an intermediate level. I'm wondering, though, if the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan is
considered too "un-standard" to learn by. (i.e. I was just watching Chinese news today and they
were interviewing some Taiwanese people... And there were subtitles! Is the Taiwanese accent
really that difficult for mainlanders to understand?) Since I previously spent a semester studying
in Beijing, at this point I have a pretty standard accent, I think... But I wonder what effects
immersing myself in Taiwanese "guoyu" for a year might have on my Mandarin? Has anyone here
learned Chinese in Taiwan? Does anyone think it's a bad idea? A good idea? Why? I'd really
appreciate your advice.



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doumeizhen -

While there is some difference in accent, my department has a couple of people who learned in
Taiwan, and their pronunciation is actually quite good, and some say, even more pleasant, as the
Taiwanese sound more soft spoken.

As for the subtitles, I think all Chinese television has subtitles, to help people of other
dialects understand what they are saying. The only Taiwanese person I did not understand was from
a small town that was largely composed of an ethnic group. when I admitted this to a group of
Professors, both from China and Taiwan, they told me that they had problems understanding him too.

So no, I think if you are in the cities you should be perfectly fine studying Chinese in Taiwan.










jie2li4 -

I meant that there were subtitles only when the Taiwanese people were speaking, but not during any
other part of the program.

But anyway, I thank you for your response-- you've certainly helped ease my fears a bit.










in_lab -

I think your accent will be softened if you stay in Taiwan for a year, but I don't think you need
to worry that you'll suddenly start to sound like Chen Shui-bian. But in fact, you might have not
have so high an opinion about the Beijing-learned accent after a while. Or you might enjoy
everyone telling you your accent is biaozhun. (I initially thought that was a complement, but now
I'm not sure if it's a complement or just a comment.)










xiaojiang216 -

I have a friend who is an exchange student from Taiwan, and I can understand his Chinese with no
problem. The only thing that you may notice is that you might fall into the habit of pronouncing
things such as the following:

When saying 中文, you might say "zong1 wen2".
When saying 十四, you might say "si2 si4"

However, this does not hinder the understanding of the listener. Also you might learn some words
in the 两岸用语 category, but these are few.

Taiwan is a great place to be!










Quest -

Taiwan has many accents, city accents are perfectly understandable. Other accents are usually
understandable, unless the speaker can't speak Mandarin, then you would hear MinNanhua,
KejiaHua......










jie2li4 -

Thanks a lot everyone, this is really helpful!










bhchao -

A good example of beautiful Mandarin is the songs of Teresa Teng. Try listening to her songs for a
while and compare the Mandarin to a Beijing-accented Mandarin.

Your best bet for a quality Mandarin education is probably in Taipei, although there could be
other places in Taiwan of equal caliber.

I have a friend from Tainan (southern Taiwan) whose first language is Taiwanese, but her Mandarin
sounds as if her parents came to Taiwan a generation ago.










Xiying -

What you hear on the streets in Taiwan is non-standard, but this goes for almost anywhere in
China. Even Beijinghua isn't the same as Putonghua. The degree of Taiwanization of the Mandarin
varies (less so in Taipei, more so in rural/southern areas). At the established Chinese language
schools, teachers are especially selected for ability to speak Standard Mandarin without a
noticeable Taiwanese accent.










gamerfu -

Taiwanese you just drop the "r" sound. It's not difficult!

example:

yi dian(r)

the "r" is omitted in Taiwanese.












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