上海话 Shanghainese - Need Feedback if you experience it your work, etc.
rich
February 20, 2008, 01:13 PM posted in General DiscussionI am to give a 3 minute presentation on anything about Shanghai to my businese Chinese class tomorrow. I thought, having an interest in languages more so than businesses, I chose to focus on the Shanghai dialect. Of course, my audience being people who desire to do business with China when they graduate (not necessarily live there), I thought I would focus more how relevant/obvious/etc. Shanghainese 上海话 is to the business world of Shanghai.
I have heard that there are even some business people who even feel the need to learn Shanghainese in order to build better relationships and understand more of what is going on. Is that true? I have no sources to back me up. And I would also like to give a few examples of Shanghainese, of course saying hello, thank you and the like... can anyone recommend a good site that has phonetics for us westerners to understand?
While I'm sure Shanghainese has been talked about on here (will do a search, but want to get this out as I only have today to prepare), most important is to get Chinese people, esp. from Shanghai (gee, are there any here? :P) to comment on this dialect. But even better (or as good) is if some of the non-Chinese staff at ChinesePod reads this, do you have to deal with Shanghainese much? Is it important? Does Jenny slip and talk to you in Shanghainese once in a while? ha ha. Is there even a market for teaching the language? Please do share.
谢谢
rich
February 20, 2008, 04:31 PMJenny, I see you are online posting at this late of night... and uh uh, if you have even the sparest of moment, would appreciate your input. :)
cassielin
February 20, 2008, 04:43 PMHere is a online vedio for learning 上海话 hope it will help http://www.tudou.com/playlist/id/1507135/ Good luck and good night!
jennyzhu
February 21, 2008, 04:02 AMThe Shanghai dialiect is a lot less necessary in work and life in the recent 5 years, nostly due to the influx of people from over CHina and the world. Traditinally, Shanghai and the people regarded themselves to be the most modernised and cosmopolitan city in China, thus a snobbish attitude towards the rest of the country. It was common for a Shanghai native to accentuate his identity and exclude people from elsewhere. Language of course was an effective tool to do that. I rememeber even less than 10 years ago, speaking shanghainese was almost obligatory. If you didn't, you could be looked down on as somewaht 'provincial'. But the massive movement of people have changed the socio landscape dramatically. Now, there is even a term (though some regard condescending), New Shanghainese, to call people who've adpoted the city as their second home. On top of the massive number of non-natives (some say up to 20%), they are so woven into the social fabric. I can feel a clear change in native's arttidtude toward new comers, from exclusive, even derogatory to matter of afctly, and even embracing espcially among young people. Even though speaking the dialect will help get things done, it is a lot less significant than in the past. In fact, you might find that many people that you do business with are not native Shanghainese.
rich
February 21, 2008, 07:12 PMJenny, want to thank you for the response! Wonderful indepth and comprehensive response. That helped me even know more about the current state than I found on the Internet. John's Sinosplice.com site was also a great resource I used to know more about the language. Thanks John!
Donglin
February 21, 2008, 09:17 PMxiexie casie for the link it seems that is is many Shanghai hua lesson there. Thanks again Dag
John
February 22, 2008, 01:25 AMrich, No problem!
cassielin
February 22, 2008, 02:37 AMdongling, You are welcome!
rich
February 20, 2008, 02:08 PMIf you're interested in this topic, found an article from China Daily on why even Chinese not from Shanghai should/need to learn Shanghainese. http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2002/1128/cu18-1.html But another question is, even though Shanghainese like to speak Shanghainese (which is perfectly fine in my opinion), isn't it hindering their ability to attract talented Chinese from around the country, or hindering business in general?