How To Have a "Taiwan Guoyu" Accent to Your Taiwan Mandarin

I don’t know about Teddoman, but the only reason why I do this is for joking around. I don’t go around all day speaking Taiwan guoyu. When I want to eat something, I might say to my girlfriend, “Ni yao cu suh-mo?”[/quote]
I plan to run for president of Taiwan using the Chen Shui Bian accent :slight_smile:

[quote=“shengou”][quote=“Feiren”]
It should be more like the /e/ as in egg. The /e/ in Jen is the same as the e in the English ‘Jenny’. But by itself. ‘e’ is like the /ə/ as in the. For example, e4 ‘hungry, starving’ is quite different from the ‘e’ in Zhen, Wen, or Ben.

I notice that all of these problem words end in ‘n’. The Mandarin ‘n’ ends earlier than the English n. The tongue stays on the palate and is not released.

Mandarin speakers with Taiwanese-inflected Mandarin pronounce these differently. But these speakers very rarely correct others since (a) they know their Mandarin is ‘non-standard’ and (b) they are either (1) proud of their non-standard pronunciation or (2) don’t care.[/quote]

Unless your pronunciation of egg and Jen is different from mine, zhen doesn’t sound anything like Jen to me. That en sound sounds more like the un in under to me.

I found a website with all the sounds.
newconceptmandarin.com/learn … inyin.aspx

Go to the Mandarin pronunciation table and you can click on all of the sounds. Go to z and find zhen.
I’ve clicked that about 50 times now, haha.[/quote]

Oh gosh, why did I think I’d come on here and get one straight answer? :laughing:

[quote=“Petrichor”][quote=“shengou”]Unless your pronunciation of egg and Jen is different from mine, zhen doesn’t sound anything like Jen to me. That en sound sounds more like the un in under to me.

I found a website with all the sounds.
newconceptmandarin.com/learn … inyin.aspx

Go to the Mandarin pronunciation table and you can click on all of the sounds. Go to z and find zhen.
I’ve clicked that about 50 times now, haha.[/quote]

Oh gosh, why did I think I’d come on here and get one straight answer? :laughing:[/quote]
Hey, at least they have websites for learning proper Mandarin pronunciation.

There are no websites for people trying to learn the improper Taiwan goyee of a heavily accented 70 year old.

[quote=“Teddoman”][quote=“Petrichor”][quote=“shengou”]Unless your pronunciation of egg and Jen is different from mine, zhen doesn’t sound anything like Jen to me. That en sound sounds more like the un in under to me.

I found a website with all the sounds.
newconceptmandarin.com/learn … inyin.aspx

Go to the Mandarin pronunciation table and you can click on all of the sounds. Go to z and find zhen.
I’ve clicked that about 50 times now, haha.[/quote]

Oh gosh, why did I think I’d come on here and get one straight answer? :laughing:[/quote]
Hey, at least they have websites for learning proper Mandarin pronunciation.

There are no websites for people trying to learn the improper Taiwan goyee of a heavily accented 70 year old.[/quote]

I don’t think there is a proper way to pronounce Mandarin, is there? Despite what PAVC is trying to do to me. (I’m ditching that series at the end of this book, I swear.) There are just different accents, the same as English.

I think I’ll learn to speak like a Taiwan goyee, just to confuse everyone.

Thanks to all who responded to my question.

My very first Mandarin teacher was my host father, a 50ish man born and raised in Tainan. Although I’ve had other teachers since then, every once and awhile, I’ll pronounce a word like he would. To this day, my wife and her family will joke about how we were driving together in the country and I was giving directions and said, with a straight face, “Zu zu zou.”
That is “drive straight” or “zhi zou” but I honestly believed that was how it was pronounced.

Hey there everyone! I’m new to formosa.com but I signed up initially just to follow this thread.

I’d love for it go further, and not just for entertainment purposes.

Given that I have lived, studied, and worked in Northern China for about 6 years, my accent is the first thing that anyone hears (rather than my message). I’d love to solve this problem so that I can speak like an educated native Taiwanese person.

Does anyone have any suggestions for extended lessons, recordings, or youtube channels?

Hint 1: Do not “erhua” your words.
Hint 2: Speak almost all syllables with more or less equal stress and full tonal value (except for certain grammatical particles like 的, 了, 個, 嗎, 吧, or the ending -子). There are not many times you use 輕聲 in Taiwan. Even the aspect particle 過 is pronounced in full.
Hint 3: Use Taiwan vocabulary, such as 這裡 instead of 這兒.
Hint 4: Learn the different tones used in Taiwan. 期 has a rising tone; 企 has a falling tone; the 為 in 因為 has a falling tone.
Hint 5: Never pronounce your w’s like v’s.
Hint 6: Cut off your 3rd tones before they rise. Pronounce them like a low tone.

Hint 1: Do not “erhua” your words.
Hint 2: Speak almost all syllables with more or less equal stress and full tonal value (except for certain grammatical particles like 的, 了, 個, 嗎, 吧, or the ending -子). There are not many times you use 輕聲 in Taiwan. Even the aspect particle 過 is pronounced in full.
Hint 3: Use Taiwan vocabulary, such as 這裡 instead of 這兒.
Hint 4: Learn the different tones used in Taiwan. 期 has a rising tone; 企 has a falling tone; the 為 in 因為 has a falling tone.
Hint 5: Never pronounce your w’s like v’s.
Hint 6: Cut off your 3rd tones before they rise. Pronounce them like a low tone.[/quote]

Also, if you want a Taipei accent, cut your tongue-rolling on SH, ZH and similar sounds to about 60% of what you would normally use in North China. If you want a Southern Taiwanese accent, cut it to about 35%. If you want a hardcore Taiwan Guoyu accent, then drop it to about zero (是 should sound about the same as 四; same for 中 and 宗).

Great tips so far. Also learn to pepper your speech with ridiculous English misappropriations like “high” (玩得很high–not drug-related) “man” (used as adjective for “masculine”), “fu” (pronounced like “few,” it’s a Hong Kongism for “feel” i.e. “atmosphere” etc. that has unfortunately caught on here), “sales” (meaning “sales rep”…be sure not to pronounce second “s” as “z”), “staff” (pronounced “stafu” and meaning “employee” i.e. “staff member”…never use in plural!), and make sure to pronounce L.A. as “ello a.”

In terms of Taiwan Mandarin, make sure to learn all the Taiwanese particles–there’s a thread on that somewhere. You can start by always answering in the affirmative with “Heya.” A lot of usage is different too. Some examples are the consist use of 講instead of 說 (我跟你講, a direct translation from Taiwanese, is the perfect sentence starter), use of 跟instead of 和 (if you do use 和, always pronounce it like 漢), and use 很rather than 挺as an intensifier, or better yet, for more Taiwan flavor use 有夠, another Taiwanese-ism.

youtube.com/watch?v=JqqoE8gQKfw

I don’t know about the grammar, but Chen Shui Bians accent has that cutesyness that seems characteristic of the local dialect.