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Przemek -

What about the Hainan Island? What is the Mandarin accent there? I guess there should be lots of
people from other parts of China living permanently in Hainan, so the local lingo shouldn't be too
polluted by dialects. Am I right?



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Suvlaco -

Having lived in Xi'an but also travelled around China, the accent in Xi'an doesn't seem as strong
as the other cities I visited. Well worth looking at.










muyongshi -



Quote:

What about the Hainan Island? What is the Mandarin accent there?

It's not bad. Pretty neutral. If you stick to Haikou or Sanya the mix of people is quite good and
they have imported so many 东北人 for the purpose of tourism so there is also a ton of jiaozi
restaurants.

But still I would recommend Xian. Hainan has way to many tourists (especially of the Russian
persuasion). And it is really expensive to live in Sanya now and haikou doesn't really have great
programs that I know of.










jacob8chao -

Taiyuan is a good choice. It has a long history, the most attractive point is that it located in
north-middle of China. Most people speak standard Mandarin. And Shanxi University is a good
university. There are little foreigners in the backland city.

I am a Junior student of Taiyuan university of tecnology.










fireball9261 -

I don't think Hainan is a good place either - too expensive, and I don't think there are good
programs there. I would say Dalien or Xian or Taiyuan could be good enough and away from major
western distractions. Their accents would not influence their Mandarin as much as the people in
the Southern China.










bearbrick -

i am totally flummoxed by this need for the "perfect " chinese accent .....chinese is chinese ,
period.

its like english.....english spolen in scotland is diifferent from wales which is different from
england and even within england there are varying "accents " of thr language ...the cockney in
london vs the liverpudlian english.....

i can say the same about the USA .....new york vs californian vs texan.

so guys , lets not be too hung up about the varying chinese accents.....i have listen to the
mandarin in guangzhou and in xingjiang , also from xian , then from heilongjiang and of course
beijing...its universal ....little intonations and perhaps some venacular regional
peculiarities.may occur and IMO.....all the better for it ... chinese is chinese is chinese .
period. and thank goodness for that










fireball9261 -

Well, I translated a taxi driver's Mandarin for two Chinese girls in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang. The
Mandarin maybe Mandarin, but whether you could get others to understand you is quite different.
When you learn Mandarin with very minimum local accent, others will always understand you. When
you learn Mandarin with certain thick accent that distort your Mandarin, no one else except for
the local people could understand you. Therefore, all of us suggested you to go to a Northern
place for your learning because their accents affect Mandarin a lot less than the Southern ones.
The differences between a Californian's English and a New Yorker's English are much less than a
Xiaoshan Chinese' Mandarin and a Shandong Chinese' Mandarin. I know because I have heard all 4
ways of speaking.










bearbrick -

please dont get too hung up on such trivial spliiting of hairs .
chinese is chinese is chinese.
and i would be very curious if you can understand ghetto english [ as created by black culture ]
as easily as you would californian valley talk .

similarly deep caledonian accents need translation too when spoken in the south of the UK......
i could go on.....and on....and SO ?

i have been travelling throughout china North and South , East and West ......well enough cities
anywhay to hve an idea that save for some regional variations ......mandarin is mandarin

and my point here is DONT GET TOO HUNG up on it . period.










simonlaing -

I think there are differences chinese spoken by educated people (passed high school) and chinese
that that is spoken by people who haven't had a chance to go to school.

I agree, in most cities the educated class who have been to university and learned to speak
Chinese to be understood in the standard style are close "enough" to standard chinese to be spoken.

If you want to interact with local uneducated people, the local baozi guy, random people playing
soccer, the type of local dialect might negatively affect your studying the standard Chinese.

If you not in China to learn Chinese, just trade or teach english, these distinctions are
irrelevant of course.

Also I think UK english accents vary much more than US english accents.

Can you see my reasoning?
thanks,
Simon










fireball9261 -

I do understand black English and Irish English as well as Scottish English and British English. I
love many of British movies with those accents. I also like rap songs. Many of my husband's
cousins live in the Valley, and I could also fake a pretty good Valley accent. In addition, I
could understand Sichuan Mandarin, Shaaxi/Shanxi Mandarin, Shandong Mandarin, Henan Mandarin,
Hunan Mandarin, Canton Mandarin, Jiangsu Mandarin, Zhejiang Mandarin, Fujian Mandarin and some of
the oversea Chinese accents (like Indonesian Mandarin) because of my environment where I grew up.
I have a lot of contacts with all of those people from all of those places. However, not that many
Chinese in mainland China would be in contact of such variety of people from all over China
speaking with all of those accented Mandarin. My point is just that: If you want every one who has
some learning (from very little to very much) of Mandarin from every where of China to understand
your Mandarin, you need to speak the standard Mandarin with as little accent as possible.

Btw, in my experience, the differences of Mandarin with strong local accents are much greater than
English with strong regional accents, except for the ghetto English which has the similar effect.












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