Rosetta Stone, CCTV - Which Dialect ?

[neurosport]

I am using Rosetta Stone to study Mandarin and i was previously under the impression that Standard language is the same as Beijing dialect and the same as what i am learning. Now it turns out Beijing dialect is not standard - so which one am i currently studying ?

Also i have been watching some CCTV clips on youtube recently just to get used to the sound of the language - which dialect would that be ?

Thanks !

[abcdefg]

Don't worry about those issues at your stage in the game; they don't really matter.

[Jane_PA]

Hi neurosport,

I am a Chinese from northern part of China. I may say most northern people in China speak standard Chinese, and all are very close, although some may have accent or different tones. However, for a foreigner, you may not tell the difference between Beijing dialect, Liao Ning dialect, or Jilin dialect. Beijing dialect is almost the one the most close to standard language. But, as a native speaker, I can tell is it a person from Beijing area from the tones or some special usage.

For Chinese from southern part of China, if they speak their own dialect, that would like a foregin language to me because those dialects are so far away from standard Chinese. But, usually at school, standard Chinese are used across China. Also, standard Chinese is exactly like the written Chinese. Many dialects could not be written down.

I hope this is helpful for you.

Jane

[renzhe]

The standard language in China is Standard Mandarin, which is a highly standardised form of Mandarin which was (at some point) heavily based on Beijing Mandarin grammar and pronunciation. This is what basically all teaching materials use, and what all official media are supposed to use. This includes CCTV (which has extremely stringent rules for its presenters) and Rosetta Stone.

The Chinese spoken in Beijing is quite close to the standard, but not exactly the same. It has lots of non-standard slang, some different vocabulary, and it adds much more of the northern r-colouring to words than the standard prescribes. It is pretty much completely intelligible with the standard though, and widely understood because Beijing speech is very common on TV and in movies.

I'd agree with abcdefg, at this point, you should simply follow the textbook and CCTV pronunciation. You'll be fine if you speak like CCTV announcers in official situations, and more like the local dialect in informal situations.

[aristotle1990]

CTTV...has extremely stringent rules for its presenters

I just heard a journalist say gěiyǔ. :o

[Glenn]

I guess the existence of rules doesn't necessarily lead to their being followed, even if they are stringent.