Standard=worthless?

dwfndley
June 22, 2011, 01:55 AM posted in General Discussion

-pass a class, maybe. and watch TV shows. I am so tired of being utterly unable to understand the indigenous people of Beijing China. So many different accents. So many ways to have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

I know I'm studying 'standard' chinese here, but it's useless if I can only say things, but can't understand what the other person is saying.

how do I ever learn to cope with the REAL language? ...maybe if I go to a village and pay somebody 20 kuai to hang out and talk to me all day? is that really what I'm going to have to do?

Profile picture
darkstar94
June 22, 2011, 03:11 AM

Well how long have you been learning Chinese for?

Profile picture
dwfndley
June 22, 2011, 03:44 AM

I'm starting my second year...

Profile picture
darkstar94

Okay, and have you been to China before, or are you living in China right now?

Profile picture
dwfndley

yeah, I'm in beijing again for about a month now, hoping for an acceptance letter to Renmin Daxue in the next week or two.

I went from newbie to ~upper-intermediate (CPod) the year before last at Beijing language and culture university, (a suckass college)

the only people who seem to speak standard mandarin are teachers, or college-educated people.

Profile picture
darkstar94

so you are upper intermediate now? that's odd, so what's the total amount of time you've been in China then? I've been studying Chinese for about two years and I'm about an Intermediate and I've managed to decifier most of what people say in Dalian, when they have strong accents it's pretty hard though... What is the age group of people you talk to? Cause I noticed the younger people generally speak pretty standard Mandarin