Just a quick note about the PDF transcript - the PDF font sets are limited, so the IPA characters don't all show up correctly. You will find all IPA by mousing over each individual word in the "dialog" and "vocabulary" tabs.

The characters in the PDF are, as noted in our blog post about Shanghainese, commonly used characters whose pronunciation in Mandarin is close to their pronunciation in Shanghainese.

And I bet, I'm not alone :)

I never find anybody speaking Shanghainese in my country so far, but the above dialects are commonly spoken among Indonesian-Chinese. Still, Mandarin is the one which is taught as foreign language together with English etc.

German & English (and Dutch) is fine, but somehow the second most strange language is pushed to the back of my head and replaced by Chinese. I heard other people have this as well.

I know it'll be very useful for me as I am living in Hong Kong at the moment.

(although maybe I'll move to Shanghai before the Cantonese lessons start)

but i think for the moment am gonna just stick on learning Mandarin , maybe once i'll be able to handle it i'll think about learning other dialects.

Jia you ^_^

actually , i also used to get the same problem

at univ there are many foreign students , among them there are :

chinese (Mandarin) - angolian( who speak portuguese) and Zambian(English ) and algerian just like me who speak both : arabic & french

sometimes when we all meet at the same time it's a lot of fun sure but my head is at the brinck to explode LOL because since they know that i do speak each of their language so they do with me , but i think with time i'm getting used to :)

Cheers

WHERE IS QING WEN?

I guess looking at it from a different perspective, if you were speaking a mix of German, French and Mandarin those within earshot would probably have a really hard time eavesdropping - you could say what you like :)

That's interesting. The same is true for Chinese languages. Northern dialects, one of which was chosen as a base for the standard Chinese, underwent more sound changes than southern dialects did. In this sense, putonghua is also "more dialectal" (or, "less original/more artificial") as you pointed out. The more people (from different regions) speak, the more chance of sound change?

But back around the time of JC, new languages were sprouting up in Europe at an unbelievable rate, and often dying off just as quickly as groups of people were absorbed by growing cultures.

So what dampened the change in Southern China?

I think southern dialects also underwent (more or less) sound changes, and the sounds in northern dialects changed more greatly than those in southern ones, probably this is partly due to the influence of northern ethic groups and their languages. In other words, southern regions were relatively well separated from northern regions, which were often invaded by northern "barbarians" in the past. The latest major sound changes in Mandarin happened only in a few hundred years ago, when China was ruled by minority Manchu people.

I spoke fluent Spanish for 5 years then moved to Brazil, picked up Portuguese while I was there. No confusion afterward going from either language to another.

For me, the only time there was confusion was when I couldn't think of a word and I was going through the "dictionary" in my mind. Once I am in conversation, I don't mix any of the languages with one another.

When I started learning Chinese it got all confused with the Spanish in my head. People said I spoke Chinese with a Spanish accent. With time, the two languages seem to have found their respective corners in the recesses of my brain, although I do occasionally get tripped up if I'm having a conversation with someone on the SpanishPod team and then am asked a question in Chinese.

The bits and pieces of other Chinese languages (or dialects; I refuse to take a side in that issue) don't seem to get confused with Mandarin, though...although perhaps that's just because I speak so little of those languages/dialects! ;)

I am a Shanghainese and I amlooking for a language exchanger,my plan is simple and clear.The best way to acquire a foreign language is to speak it as much as possible,preferably with a native speaker.We will select one theme,for instance,Shanghai's famous pedestrian street,then you prepare as much Chinese information as you can,Of course I will do the English part.when we meet,we can talk like friends and I will try my very best in improving your intonation,pronunciation,sentence-making,etc...if you are interested in this,please contact me at jiangcheng1985112@hotmail.com

I am looking for a language exchanger,my plan is simple and clear.The best way to acquire a foreign language is to speak it as much as possible,preferably with a native speaker.We will select one theme,for instance,Shanghai's famous pedestrian street,then you prepare as much Chinese information as you can,Of course I will do the English part.when we meet,we can talk like friends and I will try my very best in improving your intonation,pronunciation,sentence-making,etc...if you are interested in this,please contact me at jiangcheng1985112@hotmail.com

I am looking for a language exchanger,my plan is simple and clear.The best way to acquire a foreign language is to speak it as much as possible,preferably with a native speaker.We will select one theme,for instance,Shanghai's famous pedestrian street,then you prepare as much Chinese information as you can,Of course I will do the English part.when we meet,we can talk like friends and I will try my very best in improving your intonation,pronunciation,sentence-making,etc...if you are interested in this,please contact me at jiangcheng1985112@hotmail.com

I am looking for a language exchanger,my plan is simple and clear.The best way to acquire a foreign language is to speak it as much as possible,preferably with a native speaker.We will select one theme,for instance,Shanghai's famous pedestrian street,then you prepare as much Chinese information as you can,Of course I will do the English part.when we meet,we can talk like friends and I will try my very best in improving your intonation,pronunciation,sentence-making,etc...if you are interested in this,please contact me at jiangcheng1985112@hotmail.com

If you have ever been to neighbouring cities or towns around Shanghai,I mean 绍兴 or 杭州or苏州.Their dialects are close to the Shanghainese,actually,Shanghai used to be a small village for almost 7 hundred years.Believed it or not,even in late Qing Dynasty(1644-1912),苏州 is much more developed than Shanghai.But after the second Opium War,China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country....The western invaders set up leasehold lands in Shanghai,,we call them "国中国",means a separate small region within a sovereign country,it's a crying shame!Then it's quite natural and reasonable to understand why there is an English word called "Shanghai" and why Shanghai dialect borrowed so many English word to itself.which is Pidgin English.

I am looking for a language exchanger,my plan is simple and clear.The best way to acquire a foreign language is to speak it as much as possible,preferably with a native speaker.We will select one theme,for instance,Shanghai's famous pedestrian street,then you prepare as much Chinese information as you can,Of course I will do the English part.when we meet,we can talk like friends and I will try my very best in improving your intonation,pronunciation,sentence-making,etc...if you are interested in this,please contact me at jiangcheng1985112@hotmail.com

....do you mean on the SpanishPod website or are you actually there in Shanghai?