Beijing accent in Taipei?

[bieniu]

Hey

I am pretty much a beginner in mandarin (have studied half a year in school, 1,5h twice a week so I know some basics) but since in September I am moving for a semestre abroad to Taipei , I've decided to devote more time to chinese. Not a full-time learning experience but perhaps 1-2 hours a day is what I am aiming for.

So based on the recommendations on this forum I have a basic plan for learning.

- Anki for learning words/characters (still searching for a good beginner's deck).

- I will continue attending my school classes for some grammar and a bit of talking.

- Speaking: classes + repetition at home (maybe some Pimsleur or other audio lessons, don't know yet)

- The biggest challenge however seems to be understanding the spoken word. Seen many posts encouraging to use Popupchinese, which seems fair but I have one great concern about it: from what I understand, it is totally based on Beijing accent. Thus the question: would Popupchinese be useful for me in terms of understanding the Taiwanese speakers (assuming ofc that they would speak Mandarin and not Taiwanese, which seems likely)? If no, would you maybe recommend some other podcasts (for beginners!) but more similar to Taiwanese accent?

Apart from that I'd be of course happy to hear any suggestions and recommendations.

[马盖云]

bieniu,

I would take a look at www.chineselearnonline.com , they are based in Taiwan. Unlike Chinesepod and Popup, this course is 100% progressive. Every lesson only uses previously taught words. It is seven levels of I think 60 lessons each, getting up to a repectable level of vocab and complexity.

At first, it will drive you insane... there is more English at first, and the host speaks in a very slow and clear fashion (I guess we need to keep in mind, many learners are not native English speakers either, so he makes it easier for them!) but after a while, the podcasts are almost exclusively conducted by a male and female native speakers team.

They make the first 4 podcasts of every level available for free, including transcripts. I don't even know how they are charging now for the lessons, (per level, etc.) I just know when I was an active member, I went through and downloaded the whole series! :- ) quite worth it. Try the demos of the second or third level to see where you'd start out...

Popup is good, although it is so random. The vocab will be of little use to you, unless you commonly discuss pirates, zombies, and such. The grammar discussions at the beginner levels are good though, and the hosts are great.

Chinesepod is also good, but again, unstructured in that there is no continuity between lessons of the same level, and many people find a hard jump between levels. I think that their product offering and pricing has been changing, and they are introducing some more structured "classes" which consist of curated collections from their archives... which you can select the topics of interest.

[bieniu]

I've checked it out and it seems very helpful.

Every podcast itself is free, only the pdf materials are paid. I will stick to the podcasts for now but will prolly try the extended materials too

Thank you!

[Lu]

In my experience (two years of learning from mainlanders, then a year in Beijing, then to Taipei), you'll understand the people in Taiwan just fine, especially in Taipei. You'll have to get used to the lack of retroflexes a little, but that won't be hard. It helps that the Taiwanese speak very clearly, unlike some Beijingers.

You can of course use an extra learning tool from Taiwan, but in my experience, it's not really necessary.

Good luck and enjoy Taiwan!

[igotyofire]

I have studied mandarin for sometimes here in the states. & I am not sure if its just because alot of taiwanese people live around me here in california but i find that if i was going to generalize, then the people atleast from north taiwan speak mandarin pretty clearly & have and tend to lack a heavy accent which might make things sound unclear unlike that of natives from beijing for example. I agree with the comments above that people there should be easy for you to understand. I have noticed that people from south taiwan (people more prone to use taiwanese) may often pronounce some words differently. My favorite & the only one that stands out is 人, It oftens sounds like "len" instead of "ren"

[bieniu]

actually I started using www.chineselearnonline.com and I am very happy with it. They speak both slowly, for repetition and tones, and fast (aka normal speed) for listening skills. They also point out some important differences in vocabulary between Taiwan and Mainland (chūzūchē / jìchéngchē). I can recommend it to you all I guess!

[wedge]

The bulk of my Mandarin education came from spending a year in Beijing and it's still easier for me to understand people from Taipei. I'm not the only person who thinks this. Possible reasons include that Taiwanese people 1) speak more slowly, 2) speak more clearly, and/or 3) generally use simpler vocabulary (when speaking).