Chinese Accent Training

Course Description

A. Putonghua There are various regional dialects in China, and when speaking Putonghua, people will be influenced by their own dialects and thus have different accents. It is common for Putonghua to be spoken with the speaker's regional accent, depending on factors such as age, level of education, and the need and frequency to speak in official or formal situations. This appears to be changing, though, in large urban areas, as social changes, migrations, and urbanisation take place. If you would like to acquire a more standard Putonghua accent, we will study the textbook of the Putonghua Proficiency Test or Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (PSC), an official test of spoken fluency in Standard Chinese (Mandarin) intended for native speakers of Chinese languages. B. Taiwanese Mandarin or Standard Guoyu Most Standard Chinese as spoken on Taiwan differs mostly in the tones of some words as well as some vocabulary. Minimal use of the neutral tone and erhua, and technical vocabulary constitute the greatest divergences between the two forms. Standard Guoyu (標準國語) refers to the formal variety that serves as the official national language of the Republic of China (Taiwan).