Any Beijing Huarrr?

tommkuhn
 August 30, 2010, 08:34 AM posted in General Discussion

I'd studied Chinese for two years... but when I got to Beijing I couldn't even understand numbers the fruit vendor was saying.  Can we get some lessons so the next time the taxi driver tells me "guar mer" I know what to do?

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pretzellogic
 August 31, 2010, 10:04 AM

FWIW, my guess is that he told you to close the door, although you probably figured that out by now. 

If he did say close the door, Cpod created a lesson for this about 4 years ago

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/the-door/dialogue

I'm not sure how cpod decides which lessons to implement from a long list of suggestions, but you're welcome to suggest to your heart's content on the following thread.

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/5240#comment-189989

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simonpettersson
 September 07, 2010, 09:36 AM

Tommkuhn, CPod is a service for learning 普通话, which is why, apart from the short series on Shanghainese, there are no lessons on 方言 like 北京话. I have the understanding that people in Beijing in general don't study much 普通话 since most Chinese can understand 北京话 anyway. Of course, it's a different issue for foreigners. You can probably find some movies with a lot of 北京话 in them, though.

Anyone know if the language of education in Beijing is 普通话 or 北京话?

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lisaammy
 September 08, 2010, 09:03 PM

hello simon, i've asked this interesting question to my friend coming from beijing. he said they were taught in putonghua -- mandarin, which is so called official.