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hetkende -

And another one: using "有" in a sentence like this below, which seems to be uncommon in Beijing
Mandarin:

你昨天有沒有看到他？
(Did you see him yesterday?)

Would anyone in Beijing say that?



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owen -

I can confirm that 土豆 is peanut in taiwan... Got a very long session of laughter when i called
a potato as such in front of students.

Also don't ask for a 出租车 in taiwan. Despite the fact that its kind of a descriptive term, it
just doesn't compute (Taiwanese people are all made by Acer ).

Using a chinese dictionary in Taiwan one definitely encounters these problems, but as mentioned
before, its nothing that really impedes communication.










gato -

I think they call potato 马铃薯 and taxis 计程车. Don't know if they'll understand
“打的”.

“打的” seems to be borrowed from HK Cantonese. I couldn't understand why people used da3di1
to refer to taking the taxi until I went to HK, where I saw lots of 的士 (taxi) signs.










sjcma -

In Taiwan, you'll very likely encounter 吸菸 for "smoking" instead of 吸煙.

煙 means smoke.
菸 means tobacco leaf.
Same pronounciation for both.










Kenshin_87 -

It is best to stick to either Mainland or Taiwan Chinese if you are a new learner...
When you feel that you can handle 1 side... You can try learning the other side... It will benefit
you

As a native, I learnt both Mainland and Taiwan Chinese... I myself sometimes gets a little messy
with it... But on the average I'm okay... Haha










Quest -



Quote:

“打的” seems to be borrowed from HK Cantonese. I couldn't understand why people used da3di1
to refer to taking the taxi until I went to HK, where I saw lots of 的士 (taxi) signs.

I am not exactly sure, but I think in HK they say 截的士 instead of 打的, which is used in
Guangzhou.










jinjin -

now that I'm in BJ, my taiwanese accent is pretty noticeable. I've had professors ask me if I was
born in Taiwan b/c I speak mandarin like I grew up there and I am an ESL (can you use ESL as a
noun? probably not, apparently my English is going...ha!). The biggest problem is, as someone
already mentioned, Taiwanese people don't discriminate between "s" and "sh" much and we rarely
roll our tongues. So even the Taiwanese pronunciation of the word for student is different. The
second word sounds like it begins with an "s" instead of a "sh" and it is second tone instead.
This is especially bad when I go to the markets and try to barter b/c they start higher thinking
I'm a tourist from Taiwan visitng... What's really bad is that of the mandarin words I know well,
I say very accurately (with a Taiwanese accent), others that are new or I don't use often, I say
with an American accent. This is very bad b/c some Chinese students asked me if my parents are in
Taiwan and sent me to America as a spoiled brat. This certainly is not the image I want,
especially in light of my career goal.

my goal is to work in business, so I want to get rid of all accents and speak like a newscaster
(that's just the best example of accurate pronunciation I can think of, but I could be wrong, but
you get my drift). So I can move to Shanghai and BJ and HK and Taiwan and people won't know where
I'm from. I've been told that in Shanghai my Taiwanese accent is more common but I'd still rather
not have it.










gato -



Quote:

This is especially bad when I go to the markets and try to barter b/c they start higher thinking
I'm a tourist from Taiwan visitng... my goal is to work in business, so I want to get rid of all
accents and speak like a newscaster (that's just the best example of accurate pronunciation I can
think of, but I could be wrong, but you get my drift). So I can move to Shanghai and BJ and HK and
Taiwan and people won't know where I'm from.

For your goals, I think it's of higher priority to improve your vocabulary (reading and speaking)
and fluency rather than your "accent." While it's bad to have a completely foreign accent (I'm not
sure if there's such a thing as an "American accent" that's common to all American learners of
Chinese), it's not much of a barrier, if at all, to have a Taiwanese accent in China if you are in
the business world. Bargaining with vendors in the Silk Market is quite difficult from bargaining
in the boardroom. The couple of million Taiwanese doing business in China can probably attest to
that. For now, if I were you, I would focus on reading and listening to Chinese material of
increasing difficulty dealing with business and politics (b/c business and politics are
inseparable in China).

CCTV's "Economics Half Hour" 《经济半小时》 would be a good choice if it's not too much of
a stretch for your current level. Both the video and an exact transcript of each show is available
online so you can follow along and repeat you can understand just about every word.

http://www.cctv.com/program/jjbxs/01/index.shtml
CCTV's "Economics Half Hour" 《经济半小时》: videos (click on the little icon next to the
title) and transcripts of many shows are available on the site. A little like a more
commercialized version of "60 Minutes." The show covers many subjects, not just the economy,
despite its name.










Quest -

For business, accent is the last thing you'd want to worry about. If you look clean and neat, and
you speak fluent and understandable Chinese, you won't have any problems. How many business men in
China speak Mandarin without accent? How many politicians speak Mandarin without accent?










Gulao -



Quote:

I'm not sure if there's such a thing as an "American accent" that's common to all American
learners of Chinese

There is. And boy is it painful to listen to.












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