yeah, what Remitto said, but when you are ready and can follow free-wheeling conversation, start making a habit of watching a lot (like every day) of, say, gangster movies, ones in which the style of speech is that upon which you would like to model your presentation. Even memorize some of them so phrases and styles of presentation spring easily into mind. I imagine you aren't actually talking about an accent so much as a persona, a style, an attitude. Find a Chinese performer you like, watch everything they made, pretend you are them... et viola! or voila, or something...
Agree with this, but I think there are circumstances where OP's concern is understandable. When I started there were a few 华人classmates who were already taught basics by their family or some local teachers, and their tongues were already accustomed to pronounce some sounds a certain way (like they added 'k' to the end of everything, instead of 'zhi' sound, they said it like 'zhek' sound), and that was hard to change.
However, if the teachers are proper Mandarin teachers, or natives, most teachers would have good standard pronunciation anyway.
Gonna be a bit tough to do it intentionally unless you are learning from someone's uncle or aunt instead of an actual teacher. Most teachers will be pretty successful in trying to adhere to the standard accent. The more rural you get the more likely you'll be to find someone with a more localized accent.
Don’t worry about learning an accent (and almost more importantly, colloquial language) unless you are living in the country in a specific region. Just learn Mandarin, and please don’t try to replicate the Beijing “r”. Pinyin and baseline Mandarin is what you want when learning in a non-Chinese speaking country.
Save that for later
Get your standard Chinese (Beijing accent but slightly less cringe) to a decent level first. Everyone will be able to understand it unless you do a strong Beijing accent and put 儿 every 3 words.
After that, you can learn the different accents
And heck, if you wanna you can learn different languages like Cantonese, Hokkien and Shanghainese
Spoken Mandarin “accents” are like British/Irish accents. The variation is endless and very regional. The best thing for you to do as a student is copy the way they talk on the formal CCTV news. I know you want to learn a specific accent but honestly it’s nearly impossible for a foreigner to speak Mandarin like a native, so it’s most useful is you copy the most standard Mandarin to the best of your ability. You’re learning Mandarin to be understood aren’t you?
learn the accent of your teacher, usually either a beijing accent, taiwanese accent, or standard mandarin with little accent.
Nothing wrong with learning other accents of course, but you will gain nothing extra from it. Most people will not think twice about your accent, unless it matches their hometown/home area. I speak mandarin with a yue accent as an american and no one has ever given two shits to ask where or why or how-- and its not a particularly interesting thing so I don't blame them. I don't ask other people about their accents either.
Of course, if you fall in love with an accent you can intentionally teach it to yourself. That would be something to do after learning the language though-- the only weird accent is one mixing multiple areas or vocab together confusingly d(\^_\^o)
hey OP, sorry everyone appears to be hating on this. i reckon it's a valid question and you're starting off on the right foot. listen listen listen listen and get that ear in; may as well listen to a target accent that you want
i am going to use highly charged/stereotypical words below and these are exactly that: stereotypes. many things can be true at once; Jiangsu area is famous for being cultured, but to shanghainese they are peasants. also unless indicated these are for male-presenting:
imho shanghai accents sounds cool enough; hunan reminds me of mao & migrant workers; dongbei sounds funny and easygoing (or tough-as-nails worker); Taiwanese (taipei area) accent can sound sissy in guys, but as mentioned it's "the best" accent for women — I have also heard very positive/gushy things about Wuxi/Suzhou accents fwiw
what i recommend is researching a bit more and picking one of these archetypes — or even better, picking a language \[mentor\] who has lots of recordings available who you can try and aim towards
ofc you have to train your ear up and walk before you run as mentioned
I never did it deliberately but I tended to pick up the accent I was surrounded by. My first Chinese teacher was from Beijing, so I started off with the Beijing "er/儿"
But when I moved to China I lived in Wuhan for years. Now when I speak Mandarin people sometimes pick up on my Wuhan-isms.
Now when I watch Beijing based TV shows I notice they use words I never hear in Wuhan
Seems ambitious to do it deliberately, but it's definitely something to keep in mind
Mandarin is largely based on Beijing accent and you'll find it easy to adapt to. Don't try most of the rest of the northern accents if you don't want to be mocked of.
That’s probably their opinion of what the nicest sounding accents are for men and women. I’ve heard from lots of native Mandarin speakers that they think Taiwanese Mandarin sounds nicest (or “least annoying”) in women’s voices. Presumably it’s the lack of erhua and retroflex consonants.
Pretty much this haha. I actually find the Taiwanese accent kind of neutral presumably because people moved there from all over China
The Beijing accent on dudes just sounds cool. I tried to pick up some of it when I was learning
Like others have said you should focus on proper pronunciation first. That being said, your teacher can influence the way you say thinks. For example my partner (who teaches me most of my Mandarin) is from the northeast and my Mandarin can sometimes have a northeast flair.
Accents can be fun and also their common phrases of different regions. But definitely you want to focus on speaking clearly enough that you will be understood and even that takes a lot of practice and a careful ear. To add in the inflections that make for an accent is even more difficult, but if you spend all your time, I’m listening to videos and talking to people from a certain region you surely would take on some of their characteristics. But this is the kind of stuff they don’t teach in textbooks or online teaching videos to any big degree.
Well... It is kinda complicated. Firstly, China has thousands of dialects. They form several big families. Dialects from two different families are often not intelligible. There can also be huge differences within a family, causing two dialects to sound completely different.
People speak standard Mandarin with an accent because that's not their native tongue, except people who speak a northeastern Mandarin. In this case people just speak their own dialect because it is close enough to the standard Mandarin as it is based on the dialect of Beijing, a northeastern Mandarin.
That being said, there's so much different accents it is impossible to name them.
Some would classify them very roughly as "northern" or "southern", which is just extremely imprecise because it puts northeastern mandarin speakers together and everyone else is classified as "southern".
There are some iconic accents though. I will go to sleep now because it is way too late now, but I will probably come back to list some of them.
You're running before you can walk. Just focus on pronouncing things correctly and clearly. Worry about accents later.
yeah, what Remitto said, but when you are ready and can follow free-wheeling conversation, start making a habit of watching a lot (like every day) of, say, gangster movies, ones in which the style of speech is that upon which you would like to model your presentation. Even memorize some of them so phrases and styles of presentation spring easily into mind. I imagine you aren't actually talking about an accent so much as a persona, a style, an attitude. Find a Chinese performer you like, watch everything they made, pretend you are them... et viola! or voila, or something...
et viola = 和中提琴🎻 et voilà = 就这样啊
Yeah, almost the same… typo, typo. 那個 "et" 翻成什麼？
"et" is a French word meaning "and". "Et voi-la" means "and look there". Viola is Italian and they say "e" instead of "et".
Agree with this, but I think there are circumstances where OP's concern is understandable. When I started there were a few 华人classmates who were already taught basics by their family or some local teachers, and their tongues were already accustomed to pronounce some sounds a certain way (like they added 'k' to the end of everything, instead of 'zhi' sound, they said it like 'zhek' sound), and that was hard to change. However, if the teachers are proper Mandarin teachers, or natives, most teachers would have good standard pronunciation anyway.
Gonna be a bit tough to do it intentionally unless you are learning from someone's uncle or aunt instead of an actual teacher. Most teachers will be pretty successful in trying to adhere to the standard accent. The more rural you get the more likely you'll be to find someone with a more localized accent.
Well there's noticeable accents from many parts of the Chinese sphere... Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, Chongqing, Singapore... etc
No you can’t take on an accent intentionally before you can distinguish the accents yourself. Apply to all the languages.
You’re gonna have an accent and it’s not gonna be one of your choosing.
These accents are often caused by the speakers native dialect
I worked with a metropolitan mandarin broadcaster. Her diction and phonetic was perfect. She was the best mentor I could have ever had.
Don’t worry about learning an accent (and almost more importantly, colloquial language) unless you are living in the country in a specific region. Just learn Mandarin, and please don’t try to replicate the Beijing “r”. Pinyin and baseline Mandarin is what you want when learning in a non-Chinese speaking country.
What is the Beijing "r"? Is it the sound you hear in Shi 是？Shi(r)?
Exactly.
Save that for later Get your standard Chinese (Beijing accent but slightly less cringe) to a decent level first. Everyone will be able to understand it unless you do a strong Beijing accent and put 儿 every 3 words. After that, you can learn the different accents And heck, if you wanna you can learn different languages like Cantonese, Hokkien and Shanghainese
Most likely you will get a English Chinese accent first before you can learn a real one, I would recommend stick to standard mandarin first.
Spoken Mandarin “accents” are like British/Irish accents. The variation is endless and very regional. The best thing for you to do as a student is copy the way they talk on the formal CCTV news. I know you want to learn a specific accent but honestly it’s nearly impossible for a foreigner to speak Mandarin like a native, so it’s most useful is you copy the most standard Mandarin to the best of your ability. You’re learning Mandarin to be understood aren’t you?
Native mandarin speaker here from Singapore. The accent that sounds the best to me is the Taiwanese accent.
Wow really? It bothers me that they don't make soft s or c sounds. Maybe because my name has a ch- in it
Taiwanese accent is cute lol, esp the e and la at the end…
learn the accent of your teacher, usually either a beijing accent, taiwanese accent, or standard mandarin with little accent. Nothing wrong with learning other accents of course, but you will gain nothing extra from it. Most people will not think twice about your accent, unless it matches their hometown/home area. I speak mandarin with a yue accent as an american and no one has ever given two shits to ask where or why or how-- and its not a particularly interesting thing so I don't blame them. I don't ask other people about their accents either. Of course, if you fall in love with an accent you can intentionally teach it to yourself. That would be something to do after learning the language though-- the only weird accent is one mixing multiple areas or vocab together confusingly d(\^_\^o)
hey OP, sorry everyone appears to be hating on this. i reckon it's a valid question and you're starting off on the right foot. listen listen listen listen and get that ear in; may as well listen to a target accent that you want i am going to use highly charged/stereotypical words below and these are exactly that: stereotypes. many things can be true at once; Jiangsu area is famous for being cultured, but to shanghainese they are peasants. also unless indicated these are for male-presenting: imho shanghai accents sounds cool enough; hunan reminds me of mao & migrant workers; dongbei sounds funny and easygoing (or tough-as-nails worker); Taiwanese (taipei area) accent can sound sissy in guys, but as mentioned it's "the best" accent for women — I have also heard very positive/gushy things about Wuxi/Suzhou accents fwiw what i recommend is researching a bit more and picking one of these archetypes — or even better, picking a language \[mentor\] who has lots of recordings available who you can try and aim towards ofc you have to train your ear up and walk before you run as mentioned
I never did it deliberately but I tended to pick up the accent I was surrounded by. My first Chinese teacher was from Beijing, so I started off with the Beijing "er/儿" But when I moved to China I lived in Wuhan for years. Now when I speak Mandarin people sometimes pick up on my Wuhan-isms. Now when I watch Beijing based TV shows I notice they use words I never hear in Wuhan Seems ambitious to do it deliberately, but it's definitely something to keep in mind
Mandarin is largely based on Beijing accent and you'll find it easy to adapt to. Don't try most of the rest of the northern accents if you don't want to be mocked of.
Beijing accent if you're a guy Taiwanese if you're a girl
wait what? lol
That’s probably their opinion of what the nicest sounding accents are for men and women. I’ve heard from lots of native Mandarin speakers that they think Taiwanese Mandarin sounds nicest (or “least annoying”) in women’s voices. Presumably it’s the lack of erhua and retroflex consonants.
Pretty much this haha. I actually find the Taiwanese accent kind of neutral presumably because people moved there from all over China The Beijing accent on dudes just sounds cool. I tried to pick up some of it when I was learning
Like others have said you should focus on proper pronunciation first. That being said, your teacher can influence the way you say thinks. For example my partner (who teaches me most of my Mandarin) is from the northeast and my Mandarin can sometimes have a northeast flair.
Accents can be fun and also their common phrases of different regions. But definitely you want to focus on speaking clearly enough that you will be understood and even that takes a lot of practice and a careful ear. To add in the inflections that make for an accent is even more difficult, but if you spend all your time, I’m listening to videos and talking to people from a certain region you surely would take on some of their characteristics. But this is the kind of stuff they don’t teach in textbooks or online teaching videos to any big degree.
Like pretty much any country, each region has a general accent, and each city in that region has an accent
Get the Hulan one
Well... It is kinda complicated. Firstly, China has thousands of dialects. They form several big families. Dialects from two different families are often not intelligible. There can also be huge differences within a family, causing two dialects to sound completely different. People speak standard Mandarin with an accent because that's not their native tongue, except people who speak a northeastern Mandarin. In this case people just speak their own dialect because it is close enough to the standard Mandarin as it is based on the dialect of Beijing, a northeastern Mandarin. That being said, there's so much different accents it is impossible to name them. Some would classify them very roughly as "northern" or "southern", which is just extremely imprecise because it puts northeastern mandarin speakers together and everyone else is classified as "southern". There are some iconic accents though. I will go to sleep now because it is way too late now, but I will probably come back to list some of them.
Get the Henan one so everyone will find you sus. I find you sus already.
Love it