I'm still in the process of writing a response to your questions from, gods, last year, it is coming, I swear.
Just a few things first - my Chinese education is a true horror story of GAPS. My formal Chinese education involves year 1 & 2 of primary school in China, and then education via Chinese dramas (simplified subtitles is your friend). There were years where I didn't read Chinese at all, and only started learning (relearning it) when I wanted to read Hiakry no Go. That was several weeks of me and my dad's trusted Chinese-to-English dictionary.
I can speak PRC (and supposedly my accent is very, um, northern), I can understand it, but reading it is like pulling teeth. I did however; spend a few months back in China a few years ago, and that, well, after the first two weeks I was speaking like a native once more. My home town is northern China, as in more north than BeiJing, and we supposedly have one of the most clear and precise pronunciation of PRC in all of China. The only people who have a more precise pronunciation of PRC would be people living in Harbin (哈尔滨). So, when I first arrived in my hometown the family made much fun of my 'strange' accent because it wasn't as precise and clear. Apparently I had started to sound like someone who had spent too much time in south or Taiwan. Also, you might find this amusing, but we tend to say that BeiJing accen
Anyway, to answer (or just add to the headache) on reporters’ accent: in PRC, all news reporters have the 'standard' accent, which is based on the BeiJing standard (though dad has informed me that while TV reporters adopt the 'BeiJing' accent, they don't use their colloquialism). That’s why all TV reporters when speaking Mandarin on PRC television have the same pronunciation, which is quite different from their hometown accent. It is really bizarre when they speak in their own accent – in short, some of them sound like country hicks.
Also, AGREED on the death of petulant ultra-feminized delivery. It drives me mad, because while I can make out what they are saying it shits me to no end that ADULTS are speaking in such a way. It hurts my soul.
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Date: 6 Jan 2011 01:40 am (UTC)Just a few things first - my Chinese education is a true horror story of GAPS. My formal Chinese education involves year 1 & 2 of primary school in China, and then education via Chinese dramas (simplified subtitles is your friend). There were years where I didn't read Chinese at all, and only started learning (relearning it) when I wanted to read Hiakry no Go. That was several weeks of me and my dad's trusted Chinese-to-English dictionary.
I can speak PRC (and supposedly my accent is very, um, northern), I can understand it, but reading it is like pulling teeth. I did however; spend a few months back in China a few years ago, and that, well, after the first two weeks I was speaking like a native once more. My home town is northern China, as in more north than BeiJing, and we supposedly have one of the most clear and precise pronunciation of PRC in all of China. The only people who have a more precise pronunciation of PRC would be people living in Harbin (哈尔滨). So, when I first arrived in my hometown the family made much fun of my 'strange' accent because it wasn't as precise and clear. Apparently I had started to sound like someone who had spent too much time in south or Taiwan. Also, you might find this amusing, but we tend to say that BeiJing accen
Anyway, to answer (or just add to the headache) on reporters’ accent: in PRC, all news reporters have the 'standard' accent, which is based on the BeiJing standard (though dad has informed me that while TV reporters adopt the 'BeiJing' accent, they don't use their colloquialism). That’s why all TV reporters when speaking Mandarin on PRC television have the same pronunciation, which is quite different from their hometown accent. It is really bizarre when they speak in their own accent – in short, some of them sound like country hicks.
Also, AGREED on the death of petulant ultra-feminized delivery. It drives me mad, because while I can make out what they are saying it shits me to no end that ADULTS are speaking in such a way. It hurts my soul.