Amazing lady, confusing Chinese

Oops... change the pinyin for “国” in the last paragraph to "guo2," not "guo3." Should have proofed it better! Thanks!

I once came across this issue and was just as taken aback by it as you are. I found it in two textbooks, not always in the context of languages. I think it is right, my Cantonese landlady says it is correct, too. (well, she would say it differently of course) Google has quite a few hits with this construction. What confuses me about this sentence is the term 中国话, just like you remarked. I have two theories - being from Taiwan, she might be somewhat patriotic; or perhaps she was trying to make it easy or whatever for you. I'm sure I'm way off the mark, as usual.

I heard it in a song in a youtube video...

Yes, there is a popular song by S.H.E. that uses this phrase and they are also Taiwanese singers, I believe. I think Jenny told us about this song at Chinese New Year.

Hi excuter, Let me copy-and-paste one of my recent postings in an interesting thread of Casie’s. I don’t know if “中国话” sounds “patriotic” for Taiwanese, but I think it’s a very intriguing issue. I hope that someone will “butt in” this discussion. By the way, there are several ways to express “I speak Chinese.” 我会汉语，我会说汉语，我会讲汉语，我懂汉语. It seems that “会说” is most commonly used, at least on the Internet (Google), and “讲” sounds more formal than “说”. You might need to be careful when you use “懂”, since I heard somewhere that, for example, “你懂英语吗？” sometimes sounds like “CAN you speak English?” But I’m not so sure anyway. I hope native speakers will help us. ---------------------------------------------------------- You raised a very interesting question. There are several words that mean “Chinese language”, and their nuances are a little different from each other. Of course, some of them are often used interchangeably. 汉语 implies “汉族人’s language”, not “other 少数民族’s (ethnic groups) languages”, therefore, for example, Chinese linguists and historians commonly employ the word “汉语” in their books and writings. On the other hand, 中文 has a nuance of 中国’s language, not foreign countries’ language (外文, 外语), and the word also implies “written Chinese.” Anyway, 汉语 and 中文 are usually interchangeable. 中国话 (hua4) is the more conversational version of 中文. And 中国语 (yu3) is rarely used and is a very formal word. Btw, Mandarin is the transliteration of “满大人 (man3 da4 ren2)”, high-ranking bureaucrats in the Qing dynasty (清朝). http://chinesepod.com/connections/viewpost/casie/connect/Wanna+Challenge+Your+Chinese%3F p.s. I hear that Mandarin spoken in Singapore or Malaysia (or among overseas Chinese ? (华侨) ) is often referred to as “华语”.

re 中国话 、the Australian prime minister uses it in this Media lesson (Amber translates in comments) http://chinesepod.com/lessons/%E6%BE%B3%E6%B4%B2%E6%80%BB%E7%90%86%E7%A7%80%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87/discussion Someone just asked me last week if I could speak it. I think it might actually be analogous to 'Chinese' without specifying an accent but that is just a guess.

Wow, thanks guys! You answered my questions wonderfully! @changye - My fiance' is an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, and he nearly always refers to Chinese as 华语. I also heard some Taiwanese use that phrase a few weeks ago, so it sounds like you could be right. Thanks again, everyone! Will check out the youtube videos as well!

Btw, here's the link for the youtube vid: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pEZKP5RNdCI Enjoy!

In addition to Changye's notes, there is also 国语 (guóyǔ), which you hear almost exclusively in Taiwan, but occasionally on the mainland as well.

John, thanks for your supplement. According to one of my 中日辞典, the word “国语” usually indicates the old name of “汉语普通话” here in China. And in Taiwan, it means the official standard Chinese established, based on 北京话, by 中华民国 in 1926. For the record, there is the word “国語”, which usually means 日语, in Japanese too.