Taiwanese accent

[jie2li4]

I'm seriously considering spending a year in Taiwan to improve my Mandarin, which is now somewhere around an intermediate level. I'm wondering, though, if the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan is considered too "un-standard" to learn by. (i.e. I was just watching Chinese news today and they were interviewing some Taiwanese people... And there were subtitles! Is the Taiwanese accent really that difficult for mainlanders to understand?) Since I previously spent a semester studying in Beijing, at this point I have a pretty standard accent, I think... But I wonder what effects immersing myself in Taiwanese "guoyu" for a year might have on my Mandarin? Has anyone here learned Chinese in Taiwan? Does anyone think it's a bad idea? A good idea? Why? I'd really appreciate your advice.

[doumeizhen]

While there is some difference in accent, my department has a couple of people who learned in Taiwan, and their pronunciation is actually quite good, and some say, even more pleasant, as the Taiwanese sound more soft spoken.

As for the subtitles, I think all Chinese television has subtitles, to help people of other dialects understand what they are saying. The only Taiwanese person I did not understand was from a small town that was largely composed of an ethnic group. when I admitted this to a group of Professors, both from China and Taiwan, they told me that they had problems understanding him too.

So no, I think if you are in the cities you should be perfectly fine studying Chinese in Taiwan.

[jie2li4]

I meant that there were subtitles only when the Taiwanese people were speaking, but not during any other part of the program.

But anyway, I thank you for your response-- you've certainly helped ease my fears a bit.

[in_lab]

I think your accent will be softened if you stay in Taiwan for a year, but I don't think you need to worry that you'll suddenly start to sound like Chen Shui-bian. But in fact, you might have not have so high an opinion about the Beijing-learned accent after a while. Or you might enjoy everyone telling you your accent is biaozhun. (I initially thought that was a complement, but now I'm not sure if it's a complement or just a comment.)

[xiaojiang216]

I have a friend who is an exchange student from Taiwan, and I can understand his Chinese with no problem. The only thing that you may notice is that you might fall into the habit of pronouncing things such as the following:

When saying 中文, you might say "zong1 wen2".

When saying 十四, you might say "si2 si4"

However, this does not hinder the understanding of the listener. Also you might learn some words in the 两岸用语 category, but these are few.

Taiwan is a great place to be!

[Quest]

Taiwan has many accents, city accents are perfectly understandable. Other accents are usually understandable, unless the speaker can't speak Mandarin, then you would hear MinNanhua, KejiaHua......

[jie2li4]

Thanks a lot everyone, this is really helpful!

[bhchao]

A good example of beautiful Mandarin is the songs of Teresa Teng. Try listening to her songs for a while and compare the Mandarin to a Beijing-accented Mandarin.

Your best bet for a quality Mandarin education is probably in Taipei, although there could be other places in Taiwan of equal caliber.

I have a friend from Tainan (southern Taiwan) whose first language is Taiwanese, but her Mandarin sounds as if her parents came to Taiwan a generation ago.

[Xiying]

What you hear on the streets in Taiwan is non-standard, but this goes for almost anywhere in China. Even Beijinghua isn't the same as Putonghua. The degree of Taiwanization of the Mandarin varies (less so in Taipei, more so in rural/southern areas). At the established Chinese language schools, teachers are especially selected for ability to speak Standard Mandarin without a noticeable Taiwanese accent.

[gamerfu]

Taiwanese you just drop the "r" sound. It's not difficult!

example:

yi dian®

the "r" is omitted in Taiwanese.

[faye06]

No, not very different. I watch a lot of Taiwanese TV programs and I have no problem understanding them from the very beginning. Only that, to people from mainland China, Taiwanese accent sounds a little too girlish ~~ (sh) (if you are male)

[Yang Rui]

I spent time on a language course in Taiwan after a year and a half in northern China.

Although most people say it's fine, i found that i became a lot more self-conscious because the Taiwanese tend to look down on erhuayin. So i immediately dropped the "er"s and found that my accent sounded "less Chinese".

One of the other things about "guoyu" and Mandarin as spoken in the south of China is that they seem to pronouce tones on ALL the characters. In the north of China (and in fact in standard Mandarin), "qingsheng" is used quite widely and the tone on the second character of a two-character word is sometimes left unpronounced eg. zhi1shi (knowledge) might be pronounced zhi1shi2. Or zhuo1zi (table) becomes zhuo1zi3.

I don't suppose this matters all that much, but for some reason it gets on my nerves slightly - probably my problem!

Oh, and one more thing, which picks up on what faye06 mentioned. I think in southern China and Taiwan, there is much more of a distinction between "girl's Chinese" and "boy's Chinese". Girls in the south and Taiwan often talk in a very "cute" way known as "dia3". They add lots of "ah" and "la" and "luo" and "wo" to everything.

If you are male and studying in Taiwan or the south of China, the only advice I can give is to stay away from girls, unless you don't mind talking in an incredibly camp fashion. In fact, I think it's best for everyone to avoid talking like this, regardless of gender, but again that's a personal preference.

Danwei has an interesting article about "dia3" here:

http://www.danwei.org/trends_and_buzz/sakura_momoko_and_dia.php

Be sure to look at the "snide interview" link. It may be a bit cruel, but I couldn't help laughing.

[skylee]

If you are male and studying in Taiwan or the south of China, the only advice I can give is to stay away from girls,

Very interesting suggestion.

[HashiriKata]

Very interesting suggestion.

but it could deprive some people of the whole point of learning Chinese, I guess!

[流]

I'm not sure, but I don't think they use the "r" sound outside of Beijing much...

To me, it seems like Taiwanese Mandarin is sort of lazy; they don't pronounce the tones as much. I was talking to this girl from just north of Beijing, and noticed how prominent her tones were...

Anyway, I'm heading off for Taiwan in less than a month! I guess when I come back, I'll try to Putonghua-ize my accent... Mine might be stronger than someone who goes to Taipei, because I'm going to Hualien...

Oh, and you'll get to learn traditional Chinese characters.

如果你去台灣的話,請和來花蓮,因為我們會跟見 (I don't know if that is right or not, but oh well...)

On a similar note, check out: http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=51864 (this has been pointed out by others, I see...)