Learning the Language 197Meanwhile spoken Chinese, especially at a basic survival
level, may be far easier to learn than you think. And there
are many reasons to learn it. Chinese friends, colleagues
and acquaintances (even taxi drivers and waitresses) will
appreciate the gesture, and that fact alone will make your
time in China more effective. Speaking even a little Chinese
will also help you feel more confident in your daily life in
China, better access a society in which English-speakers are
still a distinct minority, and overall enjoy your stay.
This chapter doesn’t pretend to offer a mini-course in the
language, but we hope it will give you enough of an overview
to understand at least a bit how the Chinese understand their
own language, and help you feel prepared to learn at least
some of it. We also include a pronunciation guide, some basic
vocabulary and lists of resources for further learning, as well
as notes on non-verbal communication.
THE DIALECTS
The first thing to understand about spoken Chinese is that
it comes in many flavours. English-speakers tend to think
of dialects as relatively minor differences in pronunciation:
Yankee accents, Southern accents, a bit of Blarney or Brogue.
But even today, some local English accents (e.g. Cockney,
Cotswolds, Mumbai or Mamba) are extremely difficult for
even other native speakers of English to understand. A
hundred years ago, before TV and constant travel, there
were many more distinctive local dialects of English, many
of them not mutually comprehensible.
The local dialects of Chinese remain more or less distinct
today. Whether globalisation, the Internet or increasing
mobility for China’s population will change that over time
remains to be seen—at least for now, native speakers from
one part of China generally cannot understand native
speakers from other areas when speaking their local dialects.
As we shall see, they can always communicate in writing.
Mandarin Chinese, the dialect group native to north-central
China (including Beijing), has been the official state dialect,
officially required for schoolteachers since 1949. Thus,
anyone younger than about 60 will be able to communicate