Newbie - Can you Speak Chinese?
bill
November 20, 2007 at 09:49 AM posted in General Discussion
Answering the question "Can you speak Chinese?" in the affirmative is always a proud moment. Perhaps, yes, literally, one moment. Let's call the inevitable next moment, with its subsequent barrage of language, ear assault. But hey, you're already ahead of the game because you have this podcast to learn the art of how to keep the Mandarin flowing, and you have and will perfect the invaluable fake 'i understand' head nod.
nfrench2008
January 01, 2009 at 12:35 AM
I want to teach English in China starting Sept. 2009, but I only know a couple of words in Chinese. Could anyone give me insight into whether or not this is going to work out for me? Will I be able to work and also learn Chinese? I am taking a class this spring in Chinese at my University and I am using Chinesepod of course. Thanks
guest
July 16, 2008 at 05:39 PM
lol I totally understand what it means cos I'm a Hongkonger. We, Hongkongers, always say Manderin as 普通话 instead of 中国话 or even 汉语. We speak 廣東話(Cantonese) in this territory but the majority of us realize how to speak 普通话 here!! Idk...It's weired!
Going on track, first of all, 中国话 includes many kinds of languages in China, 汉语 = 中国话. Actually, there're tons of people learining 普通话, which's a kind of 中国话, we say Manderin in English!! In short, 中国话= 汉语 includes 普通话 and 廣東話(Cantonese)....
Also, sorry for my POOR English...
bokane
December 16, 2007 at 02:39 AM
In Taiwan, as I understand it, Mandarin is mainly referred to as 国语 ("national language"), whereas 普通话 ("common language") is a post-1949 Mainland coinage. Generally speaking, both are the same, though historically 国语 was standardized more on a Nanjing dialect of Mandarin while 普通话 is based more on an idealized Beijing/general Northern dialect.
中国话 as I've heard it is used also to refer to Mandarin; if people are talking about a local dialect or language, they'll usually describe it as 地方话 or sometimes 土话. 汉语 refers to Mandarin in common usage, but I've also seen it less commonly used to refer to the entire family of Chinese languages.
bill
December 04, 2007 at 08:00 PM
One of the things I wanted to point out is that 普通话 is the people's language or Mandarin. 中国话 and 汉语 refer to Chinese and I believe include 台湾话。That's my take in any case.
Sorry about the silence. I've become super busy. We are renovating a major portion of our home and I am doing the electrical side of things -- That's designed and well on the way. So, I'm back to the Mandarin.
再见，
Bill
johnb
November 26, 2007 at 05:50 AM
You can drop the verb altogether, actually -- 我会汉语 (wo3 hui4 han4yu3) works just fine, too.
rbbrichard
November 24, 2007 at 09:00 PM
I actually realized later people rather use "wo3 hui4 jiang3 讲 putonghua" rather than the usual "shuo". Just a question of common use, I think.
bill
November 23, 2007 at 10:22 PM
你好，大家！(ni3hao3 da4jia1 Hello everyone)
How does this lesson fit your Mandarin skills? What's the difference between 普通话 and 中国话 (zhong1guo2hua4) or 汉语 (han4yu3)？ I often say, 我会说中国话 (wo3hui4shuo1 ...) I actually learned the latter first.
urcto
March 15, 2009 at 05:32 PMThere are 8 language systems in China,a language system stand for one culture.
The north language system:Mandarin 普通话，北方言(Rural Area of North of Yangtze River（长江以北）, but it is used all over China, now)
The Wu language system(Jiangsu,shanghai江苏，上海): 吴语,
The Xiang language system(Hunan Sichuan Chongqing 湖南 四川 重庆): 湘方言
The Gan language system(Jiangxi hubei江西 湖北):赣方言
The Kejia language system(distributed the south China零星分散在南方):客家话
The Minnan language system(south fujian and taiwan福建南部，台湾):闽南语（min stands for fujian,minnan is south fujian）
The minbei language system(north fujian福建北部):闽北话
The yue language system(Guangdong Hongkong Macau广东 香港 澳门):粤方言，广东话(we also call Cantonese,which is used more commonly than manderin out of China.yue stands for Guangdong)
汉语=中国话=华语:including these 8 languages.Manderin（国语=普通话） just is one language system of Chinese.