Friday, December 29, 2006

Mandarin girly talk

Sorry not sure what else to call it, "girly talk" seems to fit the bill (don't want to cause any offence). In a previous post I mentioned about having listened to quite a lot of Mandarin spoken by young Taiwanese women at one point. I put considerable effort into listening to this kind of thing a little while ago but I think once I get to the point where I can understand most of it I will have to stop (or go insane ;)).

If you investigate other videos posted by this YouTube user you will find more than enough "girly talk" to keep you going. Other types of talk that merit some ear training are: little children talk, old people talk, north versus south, Beijing talk and news presenter talk. I am sure that there are many more to discover.

BTW what is with the cutsy expressions? Every Taiwan girl on TV seems to need a trademark "custsy" facial pose :). The face posing and that aaaahhhhhhh sound are slowly eroding my soul, be aware. To strike a balance I am of course aware that we have more than enough similar material in America and the UK.

3 comments:

John said...

It's the Wizz, Boing, Whoo Hoo, sounds they play after anyone says anything in these shows that drives me crazy.

Anonymous said...

Personally, find these kinds of TV shows distracting. All those laughters and sound effects just make me dizzy.

Just MHO, I would stay away from these programs.

Unknown said...

Hi Edwin,
I agree they are distracting and believe me I think that once I can speak Mandarin I will not watch them :).

For now though I think it is good practice to pick up many accents and ways of speaking then I won't get surprised in the future. On the other extreme I also listen to clipped precision of news broadcasts.

Although the people I talk regularly to on Skype speak much more clearly than this, I have also encountered on or two that speak just like this :O.