I say "thànk yòu" roughly half the time now while speaking English. I sound like an idiot.
LOL! The tones are infecting your brain!!!
I think the accent sounds pretty and friendly and my subconscious is embracing it.
My main TA this year is from Taiwan, and I absolutely adore her accent (and just her in general)! I feel like she's the easiest to understand, and I agree it just sounds much more friendly. I'd study abroad in Taiwan, but I'm learning simplified Chinese. Traditional characters scare the shit out of me. Simplified is hard enough. Seriously...I just...HOW DO YOU DO IT?!
My Chinese program back home is basically insanely intense and they made us learn traditional characters (and a lot of them) for the first two semesters of study. In second year, they figured we had enough of a background in trad to let us pick which ones we wanted to study -- and that that point, 95% of the class was like, "... So, if we go simplified we'd have to ... learn like three hundred characters again...? NO THANKS." So basically they gave us no choice until it didn't matter anymore.
I KNOW RIGHT, GO GO TAIWANESE ACCENT. Except the barely perceptible distinction between s and sh that they've got going. It sounds nice and all, the Mainlander retroflex sounds are sorta harsh and all, but we were doing a tongue twister today, right? It's 十四是十四, 四十是四十! Taiwanese people practically say, "Si si si si si, si si si si si!" Me and my roommates were all like, whut.
OMG THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE! My first year text book was simplified only, but this year my book has both - although fortunately we're still only learning simplified. I hope this doesn't change any time soon because...I think my hand might fall off if I had to write that many strokes.
Haha, we're learned that tongue twister our first year! I still can't really say it quickly.
Since our TA still has to talk to use like we're, you know, five I haven't really noticed the s/sh thing. But god if I were in your position my head would be spinning.
I'm planning on spending next summer in Tianjin, but I'm a little anxious since I've heard the accent there is really kind of slurred (or so a friend from Beijing has told me). I feel like the whole time I'm just going to be like, “对不起，对不起！什么？。。。什么？对不起，我不懂听。” D:
Ha, you wouldn't be happening to be using the book with 張天明 would you? The pink one? God, I hated that freaking textbook, especially since the traditional section actually has errors where they'll write 还有 for 還有 or some other thing that had us going ... wait, we can't read that!
Oh, that's gonna be awesome. And haha, yeah, I think I say, "不好意思, 聽不懂!" like, several times a day. To be honest it sort of helps to have a few stalling phrases learned, like, "我想一下..." Just to buy yourself a few more seconds to figure out what they said.
Lol, I am in fact learning about the not-so-grand adventures of the Adidas-loving Zhang Tian Ming! I don't mind it so much, although sometimes they'll have the traditional form of the character and not the simplified form when I know there's one (granted there are just times when that *is* the simplified form as well).
Uh, yeah, I have a strong feeling that “太不好意思了！”，“我不知道。”，和 “我不懂听，对不起。” are going to be my most commonly used phrases. Also a good amount of "哎呀！”和“糟糕！”
Also, oh my god fucking Zhang Tian MIng and his fucking brand preferences. My oral final last semester was about ten or fifteen minutes where I had to recount every last detail of Zhang Tian Ming's stupid pointless life from the first seven chapters of that book. At like, random. Whatever my teacher asked from the book, I had to provide. I got a script from this guy I know in the class who's actually from Hong Kong, I studied nothing else for a week, and I got a C. Barely. I am so bitter oh my god.
LOL! The tones are infecting your brain!!!
I think the accent sounds pretty and friendly and my subconscious is embracing it.
My main TA this year is from Taiwan, and I absolutely adore her accent (and just her in general)! I feel like she's the easiest to understand, and I agree it just sounds much more friendly. I'd study abroad in Taiwan, but I'm learning simplified Chinese. Traditional characters scare the shit out of me. Simplified is hard enough. Seriously...I just...HOW DO YOU DO IT?!
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I KNOW RIGHT, GO GO TAIWANESE ACCENT. Except the barely perceptible distinction between s and sh that they've got going. It sounds nice and all, the Mainlander retroflex sounds are sorta harsh and all, but we were doing a tongue twister today, right? It's 十四是十四, 四十是四十! Taiwanese people practically say, "Si si si si si, si si si si si!" Me and my roommates were all like, whut.
Reply
Haha, we're learned that tongue twister our first year! I still can't really say it quickly.
Since our TA still has to talk to use like we're, you know, five I haven't really noticed the s/sh thing. But god if I were in your position my head would be spinning.
I'm planning on spending next summer in Tianjin, but I'm a little anxious since I've heard the accent there is really kind of slurred (or so a friend from Beijing has told me). I feel like the whole time I'm just going to be like, “对不起，对不起！什么？。。。什么？对不起，我不懂听。” D:
Reply
Oh, that's gonna be awesome. And haha, yeah, I think I say, "不好意思, 聽不懂!" like, several times a day. To be honest it sort of helps to have a few stalling phrases learned, like, "我想一下..." Just to buy yourself a few more seconds to figure out what they said.
Reply
Uh, yeah, I have a strong feeling that “太不好意思了！”，“我不知道。”，和 “我不懂听，对不起。” are going to be my most commonly used phrases. Also a good amount of "哎呀！”和“糟糕！”
Reply
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Also, oh my god fucking Zhang Tian MIng and his fucking brand preferences. My oral final last semester was about ten or fifteen minutes where I had to recount every last detail of Zhang Tian Ming's stupid pointless life from the first seven chapters of that book. At like, random. Whatever my teacher asked from the book, I had to provide. I got a script from this guy I know in the class who's actually from Hong Kong, I studied nothing else for a week, and I got a C. Barely. I am so bitter oh my god.
Reply
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