User Comments - yydhyf
yydhyf
Posted on: Good Morning!
August 16, 2007 at 4:19 PMActually there is no "Taiwan Mandarin". In the whole China, there is only one Mandarin, as there is only one China. The difference that people appreciate when Taiwanese speaks Mandarin is the same as when people in Fujian (a province in Southeastern China) speak Mandarin. They don't differentiate "f" and "h", "r" and "l", "s" and "sh"... This basically reflects the impact of their dialect on them. As everybody knows, most of Taiwanese speaks Fujian dialect. Most of people living in the south of Fujian speak Fujian dialect. This kind of slight difference in pronunciation also exists in other provinces of China. It doesn't uniquely happen to Fujian or Taiwan. An interesting thing is that it is so easy for people in China south to understand people in North when they communicate with each other in Mandarin. But it is difficult for people in North to understand people in South speaking Mandarin.
Posted on: Good Morning!
August 16, 2007 at 2:29 PMChinese usually greets people like this: A says: zao3 shang4 hao3! (Good morning.) B answers: zao3 shang4 hao3! (Good morning.) And sometimes people use a simplified version: A says: zao3 (Morning.) B answers: zao3 (Morning.) After "Good Morning", there is no this kind of stuff like "How are you? I am fine. And you? I am fine, too." Chinese don't express themselves like that. But if two people are chatting, if they didn't say "Good morning" "Good morning" ahead, it is quite popular for people to have this dialogue such as "How are you? I am fine. And you? I am good, too."
Posted on: Good Morning!
August 16, 2007 at 2:21 PMThis is more like English Chinese. Just a Chinese translation of English greetings. But Chinese don't greet people like this.
Posted on: Good Morning!
August 16, 2007 at 4:31 PMSince there is only one Mandarin, obviously there is only one version of Chinese characters. Taiwan and Mainland are using the same Chinese characters. The difference is nowadays the Chinese characters which people in Mainland are using has been simplified for the convenience of reading and writing since 1949. The traditional Chinese characters effective in Taiwan and the way they mark the pronunciation are exactly the same as what people in China mainland was using before 1949.