Yes, I remember their pronunciations, and I hope that I can adequately describe them in writing. (When reading my descriptions, please keep in mind that I am an American, and a native speaker of English.) The young man from south of Shanghai pronounced words as you pronounce them. The young woman from near Beijing began the word for “to eat” with a “ts” or “tz” sound, instead of a “ch” sound. She began the word for “to sit” with a “j” sound, instead of a “z” sound. When saying the word for “teacher”, she used an “s” sound, instead of an “sh” sound.

I am very grateful that I stumbled upon your website. Studying Mandarin is enjoyable and enlightening.

Yes, even though majority of time they speak the same language, both will be influenced by their local dialects: Beijing hua and Shanghai hua, so the pronunciation of some words may be very different. I could say that Beijing speakers speak more standard Mandarin, but, in reality, this is not always the case. It depends on the person and his/her background. Beijing dialect abuses the ‘r’ sound a lot and they sometimes sound as though they have porridge in the mouth. People of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in China, on the other hand, have problems pronouncing such sounds as ch vs. c, sh vs. s etc.

Do you remember how they pronounced these words?

Best,

Serge

Nihao, and xiexie.

Last week, I met a young woman from a town near Beijing, and a young man from a town 100 km south of Shanghai. They pronounce several words differently. For example, they have very different pronunciations of the Hanyu words for “to be”, “teacher”, “to eat”, and “to do.” Are these differences representative of differences among Hanyu speakers in China?

Your lessons are 1000 times better than reading my phrase book, or that other podcast lessons I downloaded (they were too fast and didnt explain anything)

Thankyou so much.

Josh
Perth, Australia