Shanghainese (上海闲话) Recordings

[姚逸晨]

            Hey guys! Well, I'm new to this forum, and as a sort of "initiation" I would really like to share some invaluable materials. First however, I'd like to introduce myself a bit. Like many of you I am one of the brave (or maybe even stupid?) learners of the Chinese language. This is my third year learning so far, and I have to say it has been quite the journey. I was actually a sort of "guinea pig" for my middle school;  four other classmates and I were offered the opportunity to take part in a new completely computer based Chinese language program, in which we would skype with a Chinese teacher about three times a week.

 

            I did very poorly in that class, and really wasn't that interested in Chinese. However, over that summer it was as though I saw the light, it all made sense and I began picking up the language extremely fast. After that summer, I tested into the level 2 offered at my high school, but ended up self-studying levels 3 and 4. So now this year, my sophomore year of high school, I have completed the AP Chinese language course that my high school offers. Last year I also began learning the dialect spoken in Shanghai, "Shanghainese." From the moment I heard my teacher speak the dialect I fell in love with it. With my teacher leaving this year, I didn't waste time and began having her record sentences, and sentences became textbooks. We ended up making our way through the first four books in the "Cheng & Tsui Integrated Chinese" series. It was quite amusing and truly interesting along the way for both of us; my teacher even discovered the differences between her dialect and Mandarin.

 

           So to get to the point, I'm not sure how many learners of this beautiful dialect there are, but I most definitely do not want to hog all of these amazing resources all to myself. I know how hard it is to find any type of learning material for the various dialects within China, so to me these recordings are priceless treasures. If anyone at all is interested I will definitely with you all. I sentence mined and created 12 basic modules of my own that contain about 30-40 sentences recorded and I still have the word documents to accompany them. For those of you that are aware of the "Cheng & Tsui" series I do not have any transcripts at the moment, but I'm sure it would take me no time to type them out on my own for those that need them. I'm so glad to join this forum, and I hope to get to know a few of you other crazy Chinese learners out there.                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ~Jared ( 姚逸晨 )

[zhouhaochen]

hi, welcome to the forum. I unfortunately never studied Shanghaihua, so have not much to add in practical advice, but if there is a place where you will find likeminded people, it is here.

 

And don't worry, learning Chinese is not stupid. Maybe a bit brave though.

[anonymoose]

I'd definitely be interested in the recordings. I can speak a little Shanghainese, but it's very difficult to find any good learning materials. Actually, there are some on sale in Shanghai, but the quality is so low that it is difficult to really learn much from them.

[姚逸晨]

Great! I'm glad that there are some people interested! Just for a little feel of how we went through the lessons: 

Audio: http://picosong.com/Pqra/

All characters that I used were referenced from Qian Nairong's (钱乃荣) Dictionary.

第一课：第一部分 

 

生词：

 

1.) 你 --> 侬

2.) 好

3.) 请

4.) 问

5.) 贵 *in this case used only as an adj. meaning expensive 

6.) 姓

7.) 我

8.) 呢

9.) 小姐
10.) 先生

11.) 叫 
12.) 什么 --> 啥 
13.) 名字 
14.) 李友
15.) 李
16.) 王朋
17.) 王

 

 

对话： 

王朋：侬好！

李友： 侬好！

王朋： 请问，*侬姓啥？

李友： 我姓李，侬呢？

王朋： 我姓王。李小姐，侬叫啥名字？

李友： 我叫李友。王先生，侬叫啥名字？

王朋： 我叫王朋。

上海话通常不会说”侬贵姓“，一般都会说”侬姓啥” （你姓什么）。

[roddy]

Thanks for coming along to share this! Are you planning to continue with the Shanghaihua, or will you be returning to Mandarin?

[姚逸晨]

Don't mention it!   Actually this summer my goal is to really drill my Shanghaihua pronunciation, as well as get a grasp of the way the tones interact within the sentences. Of course I will try my best not to turn away from Mandarin, for those crazy language enthusiast like myself, it's all about finding a balance. Next school year, I will be undergoing a private study of 文言文 (pray for me ), which i'm actually really excited about! 

[Dean]

I am glad to know that some people like you are interested in learning Shanghainese. Many children in Shanghai do not even speak Shanghainese which is very disappointing. I have two tips for you. First, in Shanghainese, "sh-" sound is not commonly used, so "啥“ does not actually exist in Shanghainese. Instead people use ”sa". Second, 文言 is the name of that language, 文言文 means "passages/articles written in 文言". Hopefully, my comment makes sense to you. Good luck!

[DongLian]

I am trying to get a basic understanding of Shanghainese, too.  

 

I'm only starting with a few words.. but really I'm trying to get an idea of how to pronounce certain phonemes.. The ones like, "ng" are killing me lolol.

Anyone have tips on pronouncing that? Like where is the tongue located and what shape is the mouth making?