I just got back from spending a week in Chengde (see pic below ), and it got me thinking about something I’ve heard quite a few language students ask: “If I study in places like Beijing,Chengdu or Beihai, will I pick up a local accent?”
I wanted to share my own experience and hear your thoughts too!
Chengde was super interesting. The immersion is real — you pretty much have to speak Chinese the whole time, which is amazing for learning. The accent there is definitely much closer to the Beijing one, which makes sense geographically. But as someone who’s been living in Taipei for a while, I definitely felt the difference! In Chengde the sounds felt harsher or more “standard,” depending on how you look at it
So that brings me back to the question — how much does the location really matter when you’re learning Mandarin? I know tons of people who’ve studied in places like Kunming, Guilin, or even Shenzhen and still speak super standard Mandarin. But then again, accents do sneak in.
What’s been your experience? Have you noticed a shift in your pronunciation based on where you studied?
I’ve been to Chengde twice and spent a total of about 3-4 weeks there. I found my Mandarin also improved significantly during that time.
I’ve only ever lived in the north of China so I don’t really have much feedback about picking up standard Mandarin in other regions.
I do very clearly remember my first trip to the south of China, in Guilin. The first taxi ride felt like I’d gone to another country, it was so overwhelmingly different.
In time you get used to it but there’s no doubt you should mentally be prepared for a challenge when you change regions!
Accents is an interesting topic. I noticed in most cities in China (even the relatively smaller ones), there are a lot of people who moved there for work. So even though they may have their own dialect back home, a lot of the Mandarin in populated areas becomes pretty standard anyway, as it’s just the easiest way to communicate with people. Plus standard mandarin is used in the schooling system around the country.
Also South China (including Beihai!) has quite a large population of Northern Chinese people who moved south for the warm weather, so pretty much everywhere you go in China, you’ll be exposed to plenty of standard Mandarin
Having lived in both Beijing and Taipei, and travelled between those places in the past year, here is my experience:
Beijing people: you have a Taipei accent
Taipei people: you have a Beijing accent
me having an identity crisis
I easily “take” the accent of people around me, which could be the result of years of repeating what I hear around me for practice.
One time a friend from the UK said I hang out with too much italians because when I speak English sometimes I have an Italian accent, so being influenced by your environment without realising is real!
A lot of native mandarin speakers say they speak standard mandarin and then you notice there are different variations of standard mandarin. Qingdao people speak standard mandarin to Beijing people. There is an accent difference.
To Chinese learners, it can be difficult to distinguish between the variations until becoming more experienced.
Funny you mention this. I also tend to pick up accents and for some reason I was surprised when my oldest daughter did so. As background, we are a bilingual English/Spanish household, I started introducing her to Japanese when very young. Years later, when my youngest daughter and I started learning Mandarin, my oldest wanted to learn a few phrases. It was so surprising to hear her say the phrases with the most Japanese accent ever! And hilarious.
I’m going through a really grumpy phase re accents…
I went to Xi’An for a few days and when I sat in the taxi the driver asked me if I’d just arrived from Beijing. I couldn’t reply at first because I was so shocked. I’d understood him first time.
In Beijing, I would need to ask the taxi driver to repeat 3 times before I could be sure he’d asked me such a simple question. This is getting depressing! And I’ve been wondering whether to move to another city just so I can hear a different, more accessible accent.
Any advice? I really mean it, it’s too much here.
Another example, in the supermarket we only wanted half of something and the shop assistant replied: yirerrrrr yirrbarrrrrrr? that was 一人一半!!!
but I had no idea what she was saying.
another one, how much is this? Reply: qirrrrjiurrRroOooraaarrrrr no “shi” by the way just qi and jiu. My Chinese friend had to say, she means 79 qi shi jiu
where could I go where I can actually understand such simple Chinese???
I would struggle so much with this! I’m not sure if Taipei is an option for you, but the 儿 sound is pretty much never used here (e.g. it’s always 有点, never 有点儿 and always 好玩, never 好玩儿 etc etc) which makes life a lot easier for people like me who always get confused by 儿 being added on to random characters
I think pretty much every foreigner feels you here, Pascale!
When you learn in one region and go to another it can be so overwhelming! Don’t get too downbeat about it. Remember the journey you’ve been on and how far you’ve come
aaaaow thanks for your encouragement (and condolences) …
Sometimes it’s quite funny. Because I’m a foreigner, they think I’ll understand better if they shout. But Beijingers are already shouting, that’s how they speak, so imagine the racket when they think you need a bit of help…
This old lady saw me coming out of my 小区 and she was full of curiosity, so she asked (shouted) ZHU ZHE-ERRRRRRR?
which, you have to admit, is not quite the same as the school books: ni zhu zhe-er ma?
So I replied zhu zhe errr.
It made her very happy anyway: MAN MAN ZOU ERRRR!!! she replied.
We’ve been told we should add an ErrRrrrr at the end of anything that is lovely or tasty, so a painting is hua errr and this dish is most definitely 鱼香肉丝 eerrrr
saying ERRrRrR after 丝 is really, really weird.
I will visit Tapei, it’s on my list! I only wish they used simplified characters ayyooo
In Taipei the 儿 is basically never used, so it’s a great option! However, they do not distinguish between “s” and “sh” sounds, for them is always “s” ahahah so be prepared to that! For example, my very first time in Taipei, I had to ask to the cashier how much was for the things I was buying and he said “sisi” (meaning 40 “sishi”)… It was a bit of a struggle at the beginning but then it got easier and easier!
), and it got me thinking about something I’ve heard quite a few language students ask:
