Sara in China

An Ear for Mandarin

When you are deep in the middle of studying something, sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are making any progress. Without standardized tests or weekly quizzes, I am left with a very vague general sense of advancement. But I recently realized that aside from lacking scores to benchmark my progress, I’m missing out on the few daily confirmations here in Chongqing to remind me that I’m making headway in the language.

On our most recent trip to Hong Kong, though Cantonese dominates, there were plenty of Mandarin speakers floating about the city for me to overhear. Whether catching families guiding children through subway paths, or eavesdropping on tourists pointing out landmarks on the Star Ferry from Central to Kowloon, I discovered that I was very easily picking up on, and more importantly understanding, lots of Mandarin conversations all around me. I have, in fact, developed an ear for Mandarin.

But then I considered this brief and surprising sense of satisfaction. Why don’t I get this at home in Chongqing? Why do I have to come all the way to Hong Kong, land of Cantonese, to pick up on the Mandarin around me? I blame the local dialect in Chongqing. Chongqinghua can be pretty thick. Though it’s rooted in standard Mandarin (and influence became stronger when capitals were moved out west here in war times), there are still a lot of differences that make it challenging for an elementary student such as myself. In addition to teaching me important food and computer/internet vocabulary, my tutor imparted a few rules for Chongqinghua to Nick this summer to aid in talking with villagers for his field research. I gather that between the shifted tones, the utter lack of zhi,chi, shi sounds (they are zi, ci, si instead, which can make understanding numbers like 14 and 40 nearly impossible), and the thick diphthongs in vowels (keyi becomes more like koiyi), there’s a lot of on the spot translation that goes on for even a very seasoned Mandarin speaker to be able to understand the locals. For me, there’s enough moving parts to make most common conversations opaque.

So perhaps living in Chongqing isn’t quite the immersive experience for Mandarin learning that living abroad other places in China might offer. In a more cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong, I found more opportunities to hear standard Mandarin spoken. Nick speculated that the Ferry tourists we overheard were from different parts of China, so they were being extra careful to use standard Mandarin (as opposed to their local dialects) with each other to be clearly understood. But when I’m out buying groceries in Shapingba, or I’m on the subway to Jiefangbei, or the manicurists are chatting with other customers, I’m almost always overhearing Chongqinghua conversations. It’s only when we’re sitting down with Chinese friends that I’m guaranteed to hear Mandarin, and spoken slowly (thankfully, they are very patient with me!). Though I may not benefit from the reinforcement of immersively absorbed Mandarin around me, I can get the practice I need when I talk with shopkeepers, neighbors, and friends we meet here.

Upon learning that we live in Chongqing, the second question we often hear from taxi drivers is “Do you understand Chongqinghua?” only after asking “are you accustomed to eating spicy food/do you like hotpot?” I understand both of those questions perfectly now, but I still don’t understand Chongqinghua. At least now I can say so!