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Taiwanese Mandarin to Chinese Mandarin
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jinjin -

Hi, I grew up learning Taiwanese Mandarin (phrases such as mom "ma ma" are both sound one where as
I think in China they pronounce the second ma with a dot above it or something). But simple things
like this (other than on simple words) confuse me when spoken too quickly.

Another example, in Taiwanese mandarin, I didn't learn pingyin but I learned the bu-pu-mu-fo (not
sure how to write it out). And words like garbage can (lu-shu-tong in Taiwanese Mandarin) is
pronounced (la-shi-tong). Smoking in Taiwanese Mandarin is tso yiang and in China it's shi yiang?
(blow smoke v. suck smoke)

Has anyone else run into this problem? Are there any other common words I should look out for
(anyone else with this same problem?)... I know bicycle is different in China than in Taiwanese
Mandarin (both mandarin, just different idioms and accents).

It's like comparing SoCal english to New Jersey English...and I know the accents in China/Beijing
vary greatly, but just watching Mainland Chinese cooking channels and news channels, it's more
difficult for me to understand (unless I read the captioning--but I also learned traditional
chinese characters and I forgot alot of them anyway).



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smalltownfart -

Maybe you were taught non-standard Mandarin?

smoke - 烟 - yan, not yiang. (Wade-Giles: yen)
垃圾桶 - lajitong

I too am more used to the Taiwanese style of Mandarin. Watching TV programs from China, I find
that the speech speed is way faster and it takes a while to get used to it.

I suggest you take a little time to learn hanyu pinyin, it will make it easier for you to
communicate with other mandarin learners.










jinjin -

I'm not sure what you mean by "non-standard mandarin." I was taught mandarin by my parents and at
Chinese School in the U.S. I understand my relatives in Taiwan perfectly (and they me) and I do
fine in Taiwan. I'm positive I speak proper Mandarin (Taiwanese pronounciation). I also tested
verbally in Mandarin in undergraduate and placed very well.

Like I said, I did not learn pin ying (as in, my pin ying in this post is going to be incorrect)

There is no point in even knowing Wade-Jiles--that's just another failed attempt of westernizing
Chinese and of Brittish Imperalism in China.

When was a "d" sound ever a "t" sound? ts? and Zhang, the most common Chinese surname is Chang
(with a "ch" and long "a" sound?!) I could go on, but I'll stop myself.

But yes, I found that Mainland Chinese is very very fast and they are a little less careful with
their enunciation--makes it very hard for me!










md1101 -

i always saw the wade-giles system as a way for foreigners to learn chinese or at the least
pronounce chinese cities names... pinyin seems to be the preferred model now but i wouldnt say it
was an attempt (the wade giles system) to force a westernized system on china... unless there is
something evil going on that i dont know about.










imron -



Quote:

I'm not sure what you mean by "non-standard mandarin."

It's possibly because your way of romanising the Chinese words is non-standard, which causes
confusion.

For example, when you write "shi" for smoking, I'm guessing you probably meant for it to rhyme
roughly with the English word "he", making the word for smoking 吸烟. This is written as xi1
yan1 in pinyin, and unfortunately, when using pinyin, the "shi" sound is a completely different
sound. Compare shi and xi.

Also, you've added a 'ng' ending to several sounds that in pinyin would only have an 'n' ending,
which would again give cause for someone to think that your Mandarin would be non-standard - even
if your pronounciation was quite standard, and the misunderstaning was caused only by a difference
in romanisation.

These being the case, it's not unreasonable for someone familiar with pinyin to think that the
word "shi yiang" for smoking would be non-standard, even though you actually meant xi1yan1, which
is completely standard. Also, on mainland China, both 抽烟 (pinyin chou1yan1) and 吸烟 (pinyin
xi1yan1) are used, although the former is more often used in spoken language.

I agree with smalltownfart. If you spend a little bit of time familiarising yourself with hanyu
pinyin, it be of great benefit and lead to less misunderstandings when communicating with other
learners of Mandarin.










gato -

This thread will probably be helpful to you:
http://www. /showth...anese+mandarin
Characters with different pronunciations on Mainland / Taiwan










zixingche -

Not distinguishing between "-n" and "-ng" (also s and sh etc), and less use of the neutral tone
are very common in Southern China. I suppose these features have become sort of "standardised" in
Taiwan.










atitarev -

Both 吸烟 (simplified) / 吸煙 (traditional) xīyān and 抽烟 (simplified) / 抽煙
(traditional) chōuyān are OK in both mainland China and Taiwan but please use some standard
romanisation (hanyu pinyin), Wade or type in Chinese characters. Otherwise, we start discussing
what we hear (d, t, ts) and how we should spell it.










Lu -

Mainland Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin are a little bit different, but not in an extent that it
would be problematic to understand each other. If you're learning Chinese now, don't worry about
this difference, if you go to either the Mainland or TW you can just adapt when you get there.

Pronounciation is a bit different: Taiwanese tend to speak more clearly, but they also tend to
leave out the retroflexes (zhichishi becomes zicisi), the erhua (never dianyingr or yidiar, always
dianying and yidian), and some Taiwanese say l instead of r (rong is pronounced as long).

Some words are also different (like tudou: on the Mainland a potatoe, on Taiwan a peanut), or
pronounced a bit different (like lajitong is lesetong, yanjiu has a different tone on jiu), but
these are things that one can get used to quite quickly.

And do try to pick up some pinyin, it's not difficult, especially if you already know some Chinese
and bopomofo.










skylee -



Quote:

like tudou: on the Mainland a potatoe, on Taiwan a peanut

Really? Peanut?












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