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Category Archives: wàidìrén

Soundbites: is it easier for Zhonglish speakers?

… easier for Zhonglish speakers to understand the accents of wàidìrén (外地人 = Chinese from outside the big city), that is. The hypothesis would be something like this:
Since the first thing to vary in non-Beijing Mandarin is often the tone on a word [unsubstantiated impression -- it would be cool to know of an actual [...]

Posted 17 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § tones § zhonglish ‡ Comments (6) °

Chickens and Loogies

On knowing what’s normal; a wán v. wánr (玩 / 玩儿) showdown; defining a Beijinger

Picture a Shàngdì spring day of 23° (73° for you folks back in Minneapolis) with a sky so blue even the Ministry of Environmental Protection can give Beijing a reasonably believable API of 53 . The apartment koi ponds brim with [...]

Posted 17 April 2009 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (12) °

Zhonglish for two-year-olds

On how English messes with even the kids’ Mandarin

After months of exile in Minneapolis, Siberia, the nominal proprietor of Beijing Sounds now has concrete plans to return to the main studio location in beautiful suburban Shàngdì in the northwest outskirts of the capital city. The mood surrounding this semi-permanent move, to take place around the [...]

Posted 25 January 2009 † syz § linguistics § music § personal § recipes § society § street § teacher § tones § zhonglish ‡ Comments (8) °

Beijinghua, the school

Special thanks to a reader in the sānlǐtún (三里屯) area for bringing this to my attention and providing the sound clip. You’ll probably recall the local Beijinger uproar last August when it came out that that Legal Mirror was publishing some Shanghai dialect expressions in a grammar book.
Why, they wondered, couldn’t Beijing get equal treatment [...]

Posted 01 April 2008 † syz § běijīnghuà § education ‡ Comments (2) °

A Hútòngr Story

Regarding neighborhood enmity, L=N, and other hútòng realities.
Reality is never quite what you think it is, let alone the way you relate it to others. To tell a story you have to simplify, abstract, highlight and gloss over, of course. That’s the nature of storytelling. Trouble is, a lot of times what you end up [...]

Posted 21 March 2008 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà ‡ Comments (9) °