Various dialects of Chinese sometimes can also be a kind of difficulty for people who want to learn Chinese. There are quite a few terms are used for standard modern Chinese both in English and Chinese, for the sake of terminological clarity, let us review the most common of them.
Beijing hua-- "Beijing speak" or "Beijing dialect"
Although being regarded as the base of Putonghua, Beijing hua is a dialect; it is the way the local people used for communication in Beijing.
Tonal and sound variations, for example, “言語一聲兒”is pronounced (yuan2 yi yi4 shengr1) instead of (yan2 yu3 yi2 shengr1).
Dialectal/slang expressions like:
打住 (da3 zhu4) -- meaning 別再說了 (bie2 zai4 shuo1 le)
棒棰 (du3 chui2) -- meaning 外行 (wai4 hang2)
別價 (bie2 jia4) -- meaning 別這樣 (bie2 zher4)
二百五 (er2 bai3 wu3) -- meaning 笨蛋 (ben4 dan4)
敢情 (gan3 qing2) -- meaning 當然 (dang1 ran2) or 原來 (yuan2 lai2)
罷了 (ba4 le) -- in the sense of "Oh well!"
蓋了帽兒了 (gai4 le mar4 le) -- meaning 非常好 (fei1 chang2 hao3)
Putonghua -- "Normal language"
In ancient times of China, there are various debates on the topic of what is Putonghu. After 50 years later, it was formulated as: "Consisting of the sounds of the Beijing dialect, based on the lexicon of the Northern Chinese dialect, and the grammar of the written language used for communication between the Han people ". In English Putonghua is known as mandarin.
Guoyu-- National language
This term is used for the variety of standard Chinese as accepted in Taiwan. For most of Taiwanese, it is the medium of education rather than their native language. However, through the decades of standardized compulsory education, it has become the core of vernacular speech for the post-war generations. The younger the person is, the more likely their standard Chinese will be fluent.
Huayu
This is the standard Chinese -- as opposed to Chinese dialects -- used as the medium of education by ethnic Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries.
Plan a trip to China
Apply for a visa to China
Book flights
Rent a house in China
Enroll a Chinese language school
Enroll a Chinese calligraphy class
Find a Chinese kungfu school
