Comprehending northern versus southern accented mandarin

[Flickserve]

Is just me or do other people find southern accent mandarin just a bit easier to understand at lower intermediate level? 

 

Because I live in Hong Kong, when I started mandarin, I decided to look for teachers or italki community tutors from the north of China. The vast majority of my lessons comprise of these people. I also try to avoid listening to southern accent mandarin if I watch something on YouTube. Not always possible due to nature of the material presented. However, in my environment, if there is mandarin being spoken (small proportion of the time), it definitely is southern accent.

 

A few few years down the line, I still have a lot of difficulty with northern accent mandarin. Like, a lot really is a lot! When I went to Beijing recently it was tough trying to understand some simple things. Qingdao was better - although tricky, I could still work some things out which I couldn’t do in Beijing. 

 

When I listen to southern mandarin accents, it’s much easier to follow. Of course, having decent Cantonese listening skills helps a lot. I was watching an interview with a Malaysian badminton player in mandarin and it wasn’t so taxing. 

[laomao]

I'm the opposite! I live in the south (ish) but still find myself gaping at people sometimes when they speak, whereas when I visit Beijing it feels so easy, even accounting for the Beijing accent. I have a singaporean friend and I find his accent really hard to understand at times, it gets a bit embarrassing. 

[Bibu]

very interesting point view, as a native , never thought like this.

 

While I do believe what you said. Beijing accent or the beijing way is a bit difficult, too quick, swallow words and too much 儿, LOL.

 

While The Putonghua is quite universal through China now,  i do not believe the northern southern accent things. In a place with its own dialect, kids learn Putonghua in school and from TV, it is same through the China. If the northerner you meet does not speak well, perhaps he/she does not learn Putonghua well in school.

 

In most big cities  now, Putonghua is quite popular, it makes the kids in cities got an advantage as well. Another guess is you teacher is from small village , LOL, kidding.

[889]

Whether accent is the correct term or not I don't know, but native Cantonese speakers don't sound like native Beijingers speaking Putonghua (as distinct from Beijinghua). Like one of the other posters, I find that my Chinese is oddly centred in Beijing and the surrounding area: the further from Beijing, the more difficulty I have understanding people and the more difficulty they have understanding me. While in Beijing I'll often -- though not always -- encounter people who seem to speak clear as a bell and understand me without a problem.

[Publius]

It's parallel to the situation where non-native English speakers find the speech of other non-natives easier to understand than that of native speakers.

 

Southerners learn Standard Mandarin/Putonghua/Guoyu/Huayu at school and from TV. It is to them a second (though primary) language. As second-language learners, their accent is in inverse proportion to the level of education. The linguistic complexity is also greatly reduced in the standardized version. For example, neutral tone and erhua virtually disappeared from Taiwan Guoyu; and in most part of the Chinese-speaking community, there is no distinction between 咱們 and 我們.

 

Qingdao is an interesting case. Mandarin is spoken natively there, but it's Jiaoliao Mandarin, notoriously hard to understand, even by Mandarin-speakers from the same province. Naturally they'll switch to Putonghua when interacting with an outsider like the OP. People in the service industry may even speak impeccable Putonghua. But if you eavesdrop on the locals while they're wining and dining and shooting the breeze, I bet chances are you won't have the faintest idea what they're talking about.

 

A person from Beijing or Dongbei, on the other hand, because their native tongue is so similar to Standard Mandarin, they often don't make a conscious distinction between the two. That's probably why you find it harder to follow. That and the lack of exposure.

[889]

"It's parallel to the situation where non-native English speakers find the speech of other non-natives easier to understand than that of native speakers."

 

Yes, in India I've been told I don't sound like a native English speaker. And I speak wonderful Spanish I always think, so long as I'm talking with other non-native speakers. I assume this is a result of school, where teachers are usually non-native speakers.

 

But in China I can't test this rule, for there seems to be an odd but very strong social convention that foreigners don't speak Chinese with each other. Not sure why.

[js6426]

1 hour ago, Publius said:

A person from Beijing or Dongbei, on the other hand, because their native tongue is so similar to Standard Mandarin, they often don't make a conscious distinction between the two. That's probably why you find it harder to follow. That and the lack of exposure.

 

This seems to make great sense. 

 

Flickserve, I have the exact same problem, which is strange to me being as I'm in Harbin where such standard Putonghua is apparently spoken!  Obviously my listening still has a lot of issues at this point, but I think I can see the truth of what Publius said.  For me the easiest to understand is when I'm listening to my northern friends.  They are well educated, and I do notice a significant difference in understanding between when they are speaking to me, or speaking to each other.  Following that I find Southerners way easier to understand than locals up here.  Regarding the locals here, I often have no clue what they are going on about!  However, I don't doubt that I might have an even harder time understanding local Southerners speaking if I was in their territory, so to speak.  I imagine the reason I find southerners easier in general is because it's often on TV/Youtube, where they are speaking Putonghua.

[Wurstmann]

It's not just north vs south. Also men vs women. Men tend to slur their speech much more.

[imron]

6 hours ago, Publius said:

and in most part of the Chinese-speaking community, there is no distinction between 咱們 and 我們.

Philistines

[NinjaTurtle]

This tread reminds me of how the speaking of 'Chinglish' has become widespread in China and seems to be very standardized throughout the country.

 

(Believe it or not, I actually study Chinglish, because it helps me understand what my students are trying to say. It helps me predict their Chinglish/English mistakes.)

 

[Flickserve]

10 hours ago, laomao said:

I'm the opposite! I live in the south (ish) but still find myself gaping at people sometimes when they speak, whereas when I visit Beijing it feels so easy, even accounting for the Beijing accent.

 

I am jealous 

 

@Publius

 

makes sense.

 

Now, how do I go around finding natives talking naturally to each other rather than being conscious of being filmed and altering their accent?