Hey - who speaks a dialect/another version of Chinese

[TSkillet]

Cantonese? Fujianese? Taiwanese? Hakka? Shanghainese?

[wix]

I had some lessons in Taiwanese in Taiwan last year. Shortly after that I came to China. Sadly I didn't continue to make much effort to speak the language after arriving here. Fortunately though I am in Fujian Province in an area where everyone speaks Minnan (Hokkien, Fujianese, Hoklo, Taiyu or whatever you might like to call it).

My boss is Taiwanese and although he speaks to me in English whenever he talks to someone else he uses Taiwanese. Other people in my company and in the town I live in speak to me in Mandarin, but whenever they are not speaking to me directly they will use Minnan. As a result I can understand some common words and phrases and in the last few weeks I have started speaking a little!!!

Although I don't expect to ever become as proficient in Taiwanese as I am in Mandarin I think it is good to be able to speak at least a little. It is particularly nice to be able to say something to old people who cannot speak Mandarin very well.

If you are interested have a look at this article about foreigners learning Taiwanese which includes a quote from yours truly.

Taiwanese enjoys revival among foreign students (website probably blocked in China)

=====

I heard channamasala can speak good Guizhouhua...

[TSkillet]

I'm a semi-native Cantonese speaker (it was my first language, however it is far from my best language - I grew up in the US) - but when I was in Shanghai last summer for 5 weeks -I'd go to meetings with my staff and vendors - and I'd ask a question, and then of course they'd talk amongst themselves in Shanghainese. Around the 4th or 5th week, I began to understand them (of course knowing the context) and would answer them directly without waiting for the english or mandarin question/statement - and then they'd say "wait . ..that was shanghainese. .. how did you understand?"

aside from the immersion - I think the fact that I know two versions of chinese moderately well - it helped me to hear a third version, especially when I knew the subject matter. Many words sound similar enough to either Cantonese or Mandarin that meanings could be deduced.

[confucius]

I like how the Shanghai folks refer to themselves as "Allah" (Shanghai dialect for "wo")

[channamasala]

Wah hen chongming, suo Gui-dzou hua. Woa de hua yao de bei'ah?

:-P

[batmarj]

My husband's relatives expect me to be able to speak Shanghainese when I go back to Shanghai - any advice as to how to make that happen?

Allah zzz sang-hay-nin

[TSkillet]

batmarj - uh, pray? I can't fit my tongue around those funky sounds.

[Guest vinzlim]

hey i speak hakka too. but it's mix with local slangs here in malaysia. my relatives from guang dong couldn't recognise my hakka. so am I with his.hahaha

[ChouDoufu]

aside from the immersion - I think the fact that I know two versions of chinese moderately well - it helped me to hear a third version' date=' especially when I knew the subject matter. Many words sound similar enough to either Cantonese or Mandarin that meanings could be deduced.[/quote']

I think that's probably very similar to how people who study romance languages are always able to pick up other romance languages pretty quickly. I know a bunch of people who spoke spanish and french or italian and french who were able to learn portugese really quickly.

I'd really like to learn Cantonese though. It sounds so exciting when people are speaking in Cantonese.

[TSkillet]

ChouDouFu - Cantonese is a fun language to swear in.

[Guest Anonymous]

ChouDouFu - Cantonese is a fun language to swear in.

Actually the same goes for many Southern dialects :-) I had a lot of fun learning to swear in Taiwanese (Minnan). There are phrases that just simply don't have an equivlent in Mandarin.

[ChouDoufu]

Mandarin is pretty terrible for swearing. Why is that? are Mandarin speakers just less imaginative?

[Guest Anonymous]

Mandarin is pretty terrible for swearing. Why is that? are Mandarin speakers just less imaginative?

Mandarin in Chinese used to be called "Guanhua", which literally means "government language" or "official language". I seriously doubt swearing is appropriate for government officials ;-) At least in public ;-)

[wix]

Mandarin is pretty terrible for swearing. Why is that? are Mandarin speakers just less imaginative?

I think it might be related to the fact that for many people Mandarin is a second language and they prefer to swear in their native language or dialect.

[Tsunku]

I can speak some Kunminghua, enough to raise some eyebrows among the locals, who hardly expect foreigners to speak putonghua, let alone their local dialect. Kunminghua is really fun to speak, it can sound kinda like grunting. The sounds aren't really distinct, they're sort of half-formed, so you can get away with a lazy tongue much more so than with putonghua. Swearing is pretty colorful too

Jess

[holyman]

beijing putonghua swearing is pretty cool too, if u catch the context.

[ChouDoufu]

beijing putonghua swearing is pretty cool too, if u catch the context.

Can you by chance give any examples? I'd love to learn some just so I'll know if was swearing at me. (you can PM me so the board isn't filled with swearing..)

[roddy]

You are welcome to start a swearing thread - but please

1) Mark it clearly as such in the title

2) Use masked swearing (with lots of *'s and !'s) - I know it sounds daft, but swearwords in a webpage can make some firewalls block access.

Roddy

[Guest Humani]

I had some lessons in Taiwanese in Taiwan last year. Shortly after that I came to China. Sadly I didn't continue to make much effort to speak the language after arriving here. Fortunately though I am in Fujian Province in an area where everyone speaks Minnan (Hokkien' date=' Fujianese, Hoklo, Taiyu or whatever you might like to call it).

My boss is Taiwanese and although he speaks to me in English whenever he talks to someone else he uses Taiwanese. Other people in my company and in the town I live in speak to me in Mandarin, but whenever they are not speaking to me directly they will use Minnan. As a result I can understand some common words and phrases and in the last few weeks I have started speaking a little!!! [/quote']

I have relatives in Fujian, who I haven't met yet, and some don't speak mandarin. Do you know anyway I can learn fujianese/minan before I go there? (It probably won't be soon). Is there any way to write the sounds/ find translations? My mother in law seems to be expecting me to be able to communicate with her... :?

[wix]

I have relatives in Fujian, who I haven't met yet, and some don't speak mandarin. Do you know anyway I can learn fujianese/minan before I go there? (It probably won't be soon). Is there any way to write the sounds/ find translations? My mother in law seems to be expecting me to be able to communicate with her... :?

There is a brief section on my Taiwan website about learning Taiwanese (I should update this section sometime). There are a few useful links there including one to a website with sound files.

Very sadly there is a dearth of printed materials for learning Minnan. I have a textbook called Shenghuo Taiyu (ISBN: 9575960602) which is reasonable and comes with tapes, but it is printed in traditional Chinese and includes the Church romanization. YOu would need to have a reasonable knowledge of Chinese to be able to read the book.

The most widely used system for writing Taiwanese/Minnan is Church romanisation. It is used in Taiwan and in China although there are a few minor differences on either side of the Strait. While the system is accurate it is not very easy to use unless you have been taught it (i.e. the pronunciation is often not very clear from just looking at it. e.g. chhoa is pronounced tswa). You really need someone to teach it to you.

Another thing to note is that it is a good idea to learn the Xiamen pronunciation as it is considered fairly standard and should be widely understood. Be aware though that there is some considerable variation in pronunciation and if your relatives happen to be in some remote village in the mountains the language they speak may be completely unintelligible.

Anyway good luck in your efforts. It shouldn't be that difficult to pick up at least some basic phrases.