Mandarin is the Beijing dialect, or common language 普通话 putonghua, as the communist government like to call it (its called the national language 国语 guoyu in Taiwan). Also it’s known as Han language 汉语 hanyu, or simply Chinese 中国话 zhonguohua. Some people get upset when using the ‘hanyu’ as it denotes the ethnicity of the language (i.e the Han nationality) in certain parts of China there is much resentment towards the Han majority .
I always have to explain to people that you should say Mandarin or Mandarin Chinese and not just Chinese, for a person who is not so familair with China may think you speak Cantonese, certainly in the UK this is the case due to the history with Hong Kong.

For anyone that comes to China, there is an assertion made by most Chinese that Mandarin is the toughest language in the world and that it’s next to impossible for foreigners to understand, let alone communicate.
Sometimes this barrier is the biggest obstacle in trying to communicate with someone as they immediately believe you cannot possibly speak their language and so don’t even try to listen what you are trying to say! It can be a confidence blow when you go outside, try to say something and get a blank face. Often though, only a few seconds later they suddenly reaslise they just understood what was said!

Being in Manchuria there is an accent, but people here are clear with their tones and pronuncition, I think it’s easier to learn here, than in the south of China, where you have to deal with vast pronuniation differences and dialects. Rather like the UK, there are accents everywhere in China, even here in the north east where Mandarin originates, city to city there are marked differences- Just within Jilin Province there are varying accents.

The other issue is the education level and familarity the peson has speaking with non-native speakers. So trying to communicate with a migrant worker is harder than a educated person from the city. I sometimes wonder what I would sound like to a Chinese person – Probably like Inspector Clouseau speaking English, which would explain why people laugh when I speak! 🙂
English and Chinese are both not easy languages in different ways, where English has complex tenses, irregular verbs, Chinese has different tones and characters. There is a good arguement though for saying that Mandarin has considerably more logic to it that English does.
However, with Mandarin there’s a massive initial hurdle that makes most switch off and ultimatly give up, but beyond this initial stage things get easier. After a while you start to be able to recognise characters, sounds and begin to develop a basic vocabulary, then you hit a plateau.

When I fist got here I got hung up over the different tones when speaking; this is something that takes a lot of time to get used to. I’ve learnt just to try to copy the way other people speak and it seems to work.
My personal opinion is that conversational speaking and listening can be picked up pretty quickly. Reading takes some effort but writing takes much time and real dedication. Which is probably why the only thing I can write with a pen in chinese is my name! To become good at handwriting takes years of practice. However, Writing is not of so much use for me, for if I have to use the written form I will use a computer or a phone to write, and this is pretty easy to do if you can read.

I couldn’t live here and not be able to communicate, It hampers your independence and makes it so if you want to do anything worthwhile you need Chinese assistance. I cannot understand the foriegners who choose to live here, yet are uninterested in at least learning the basics of the language. The idea of being helpless and relying on other people all the time annoys me, and it reinforces the stereotype (that some Chinese hold) that foreigners can’t do things on their own.

I’ve read much about the craze to learn Mandarin at schools in the UK, the idea that to do business in the next superpower every child should be learning their ji qi xi, zhi chi shi. The idea of learning a foreign language at a young age is laudable, but ultimatly a language is only any good if it can be practically used- is there an environment for it? I suspect the people behind such initiaves probably have never been to China, and base their ideas on what they read in the press and as such is probabbly a waste or time.
People may say that French and German are not the languages of the future, but the fact remains British people who leave their country at one time or another will be speaking one of these languages on holiday, not Mandarin or Arabic. How many people will come on holiday to China and actually have a chance to use the language effectively?
You may think im a hypocrite for saying this but I make the distinction as I live in the country, It’s useful for me and I have an environment.

As well as this, I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to try to learn Mandarin in the UK, outside of China. It is hard enough for Chinese students here leaning English but at least they have an element of outside influence to help them. e.g. Films, TV. Also, I think that if you really want to learn a language well, you must have an interest in it and learning from another country makes it very difficult for students to have that interest.

I’m forgetting that many lucky/rich Chinese are learning English from a very young age, there is a huge national drive towards getting all of the population to be able to understand basic English. This is many, many years away and probably will never happen , but it shows that China is far ahead in promoting English than other countries are in promoting Mandarin.

Of all the businessmen I’ve met in China, not one of them has been able to speak Chinese, English is the language of business and it is here to stay. Learning Chinese is useful for social purposes, but to assume you can get a job just because of it is a little delusional, unless you plan to become a translator, or follow an academic persuit.
I have learnt that It’s essentailly cheaper and easier to have Chinese employed that speak English than vice-verser, even if they don’t quite understand the cultural nuances.

More importantly, I believe, is a deeper cultural understanding that lies beneath the language. To fully understand this one has to have a knowldege of the language, as this allows you to be able to start to understand how Chinese people think. It gives you the chance to communicate with people with whom it would have been impossible before and I find this apsect most interesting – Finding out new things and the reasons behind why people do things in certain ways.

I leant this phrase yesterday 道貌岸然 dàomàoànrān. It means when someone says good things, but actually does something else. Literally meaning ‘looking sanctimonious’, On the outside one says they can do something but really this is a facade. On the inside they have no intention of doing so, of course it’s very difficult to know that these people are bad until you are In the bad situation yourself.

I’ve been trying to think of a good equlavant saying for this in English, maybe something like ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ but I can’t think of anything that is nearer, any Ideas?

I’ve experienced this phenomenon time and again right across different areas of life and I have developed a ‘radar’ that helps me sniff-out such things.

Regarding business related matters with people – I know this is cynical – but if someone is too nice to you at first, be suspicious. Look for the deeper reason behind ‘why is this person being so nice to me?’ ‘what do they want?’

99% of the time you can be sure its not just for the benefit of your health!

For me, the many dealings I had with Star Education and simliar like agencies further re-infoces this point. They will be very nice to you at first, promise the world, coax you in, then once you’ve signed up- bang 道貌岸然. My dealings with the good organisations here have been quite the opposite, business-like and straight forward, for they have no need to put on a show.