My in-laws are going back to Taiwan soon, and I would like them to pick me up a book (hopefully with accompanying tapes/cds) on colloquial Taiwan Mandarin. I have about 30 tapes/cds that I listen to, and with very little exception all the speakers use the thick Beijinger accent. On the one hand, I can understand Beijingers quite well, but on the other hand I have trouble understanding my in-laws.
I have vcds of “Meteor Garden”, which is helping me, but I would really love a set on colloquial Mandarin as it is spoken by Taiwanese people. Does anybody know of such a book/set, and if so where would it be available in Kaohsiung?
Because Mandarin is Mandarin. The difference between Taiwan Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin can hardly be noticed by us Chinese natives. How come you make it?
I have no idea.
I don’t think you can find the one you want. Or it is not Mandarin but some Taiwan dialect. But then, the Taiwan dialect can hardly be used outside Taiwan.
[quote=“shengmar”]You puzzles me a lot, I have to say.
Because Mandarin is Mandarin. The difference between Taiwan Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin can hardly be noticed by us Chinese natives. How come you make it?
I have no idea.
I don’t think you can find the one you want. Or it is not Mandarin but some Taiwan dialect. But then, the Taiwan dialect can hardly be used outside Taiwan.
I am lost.[/quote]
“Lost”? Obviously. As in when followed by “case”. “The difference… can hardly be noticed by us Chinese natives”? I have friends from Shanghai, Henan, Taiwan, and Xinjiang that would argue that point.
And then there’s the simple fact that seperation from the point of origin of a language can and does have noticable, and possibly wide-ranging effects. Taiwanese Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin are as different as American English and New Zealand English. Let’s see… if Taiwanese Mandarin is so close to a 100% match for Beijing Mandarin, what does 機車 mean to a Beijinger? Others here with more grasp on the regional dialect of Mandarin here will be able to provide a number of other examples. Then there’s simple pronunciation variants; the retroflex “zh” “ch” “sh” sounds, in Taiwanese Mandarin, have been softened greatly compared to the Beijing versions, to the point that they often get merged with “j” “q” and “s” respectively. And there are several other differences that others might be able to explain better.
Or is it possible that I’m just feeding a troll here?
Haeh??? :s Every taxi driver here realizes that I didn’t pick up my Mandarin in Taiwan but must have studied in Mainland China. And that’s not because of the words I use and though I lost most of my really heavy Tianjin accent ages ago :s
“Taiwan Guoyu” is actually a special term for speaking in a way that combines Taiwanese and Mandarin in the same sentence. It grew quite popular in Taiwan over recent years. However, I don’t think that’s what you meant here. (or is it?) I see you used the term “going back”, are your in-laws Taiwanese? If that’s the case, maybe they’ll know better what books to pick for ya, cuz they probably know you better than any of us here.
[quote=“shengmar”]You puzzles me a lot, I have to say.
Because Mandarin is Mandarin. The difference between Taiwan Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin can hardly be noticed by us Chinese natives. How come you make it?[/quote]
Umm, where are you from?
Anyways, different dialects and accents means that it is possible to understand one group of people but not the other. Same goes for English and other languages.
I would say, don’t worry about “Taiwan Mandarin” tapes, because I don’t know of any – all the language teaching materials here claim to be “Standard” Mandarin which to them means “Beijing Mandarin” except that no one here really realizes what that is…for a whole variety of reasons.
If you want Taiwanese Mandarin, try to look up some radio stations on the Web. You can listen to most of my favorites that way. That will definitely get you going.
Taiwan Mandarin? You mean where the word for “happen” (“fa1 sheng1”)is pronounced “hua1 sen1” and is indistinguishable from the word for “peanut”? Where “The development of our nation is of great importance” is pronounced “o3 men2 go2 ja1 dei hua1 zan3 su4 hui1 cang2 zong4 yau4 dei”?
I distinguish between Taiwanese Mandarin and Taiwan Standard Mandarin. Taiwanese Mandarin is Mandarin spoken by people who are native speakers of Taiwanese and who do not have a firm grip on Mandarin. BTW Chris, laughing at non-native speakers of any language is a real class act. Hope your Mandarin gets a kinder reception.
Taiwan Standard Mandarin is what educated and younger people speak here in Taiwan. It features softer retroflexes and lots of usages imported from Taiwanese (‘Wo gen ni jiang’, ‘hui’, ‘jiang3’ instead of ‘shuo1’, etc.). Unfortunately I don’t know of any texts that teach the language as it is actually spoken in Taiwan.
To the original poster: I would guess that your in-laws are speaking Taiwanese Mandarin. Lots of older folks do. In this case, your best bet is to learn some Taiwanese or Hakka depending on their ethnicity. The only other way is a long period of residence in Taiwan. There are certainly no textbooks just as it would be tough to find a text on how to speak English with a Mexican accent.
Considering that some new generation northern Taiwanese have trouble understanding southern Taiwanese, you not understanding your in-laws is completely understandable. As Feiren mentioned, you’re not going to find any CDs/tapes unless you watch some shows that have SoS in them (aka Meteor Garden). Of course, another option is to listen to President Chen’s speeches.
