You ask if this subject is useful. YES! I took three years of college Chinese and got pretty good, but once I used it in the real world (i.e. mainly among immigrants in New York), I found it really hard to understand people from different areas, especially the south and Taiwan. (I still can barely understand Shanghai people.) So learning to hear the accents was a really important step in the learning process, and these lessons are really helpful.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
May 26, 2008 at 4:01 PMYou ask if this subject is useful. YES! I took three years of college Chinese and got pretty good, but once I used it in the real world (i.e. mainly among immigrants in New York), I found it really hard to understand people from different areas, especially the south and Taiwan. (I still can barely understand Shanghai people.) So learning to hear the accents was a really important step in the learning process, and these lessons are really helpful.