Any differences between standard Putonghua 普通话 and Ji-Lu Mandarin 冀鲁官话？

[Xi'Er Dun]

I'm probably going to study Putonghua 普通话 at Shandong University 山东大学 in Jinan 济南市 this Christmas and am wondering if the local language or dialect is any different from that of the official language Putonghua?

By the way, in regards to living costs, how expensive a city is Jinan to live in (not talking about accomodation but rather the costs of food for six weeks)? Are there any affordable places to experience local cuisine or 山东菜 for a foreigner (I'm an Australian student).

How much rougly are airfares from Australia to Jinan, just a rough figure in Australian Dollars?

谢谢您

Xi ' Er Dun 希尔顿 from 澳洲

[skylee]

I think it is 齊魯 (Qi Lu), not 冀鲁.

[isml_smile]

I am a Chinese living in Shanghai. I have to say that there are much difference.

Actually, if people who living in ShanDong say their local language, I can not even understand. We can only understand each other through Putonghua.

My suggestion is that you should learn Putonghua and do not need to pay much attention to ShanDong's local language. That's because Putonghua is more widely used in China.

[Oceanfield]

In China's different place has different accent, in somewhere such as Ji-lu, people speak with very strong local accent, their pronounce is different to Putonghua.

but the gramma and handwriting are absolutly the same.

I speak Putonghua

[xuechengfeng]

I don't know how much it helps, but I lived in Qingdao for a couple months. Same province, couple of hours away, probably similar in terms of development. Food there was relatively inexpensive. I eventually shopped at the market and cooked my own food, so that was clearly cheaper, but eating out at a local restaurant, I could get a decent size meal for about 15 kuai. You should expect standard Mandarin there. Of course, there will be some 山东话, but you'll catch on. I only noticed a little bit of dialect in Qingdao. For example, for 没问题, it could sound like mo wenti as opposed to mei wenti.

[carlo]

The countryside can be interesting. I'll always remember the very first time I went to a certain place in Shandong, and heard the mayor speak Putonghua. For the first 30 seconds or so I thought he was talking about rabbits (兔子), then I realised he meant investments (投资). At one point the chairman of the People's Assembly announced she had lost the Party Secretary (书记) -- in fact, she couldn't find her mobile phone (手机). After you get used to it, it's ok.

[中国男子汉]

Apparently some people have exaggereated the "difference" between Putonghua and Ji-Lu Mandarin. I've been travelling around China and found that people in the north could understand each other easily. Of course dialects and accents do exist but they are not big problems for understanding. Besides, most people in the north speak Standard Mandarin.