Han's
I have tried, i really have, ...just couldn't get my head round it all. I've probably learnt, or picked up more of the Spoken Mandarin since being with Lucy than the previous 7 years i was in China. I would say i have a vocabulary of about 80 to 100 words, which has actually served me quite well so far. But even Lucy says i'm a lost cause for learning Chinese, but she still tries to teach me words for this and that!! ...haha!!
I am convinced, you have an ability to learn languages or you don't, those that don't, will get by with what they can pick-up from here and there, and probably benefit most from living in that country. Where people like Lucy seem to pick languages up very easily. She has lived here in Cyprus for a year, and without any formal training whatsoever, can hold simple conversations with the locals in there native Cypriot Greek. Me, i know about 30 to 40 words, that's it!! haha!! But Hey, about 90% of the people here speak English, so what's the point in learning Greek?? haha!! She speaks fluent English, (and i do mean fluent) and does pretty well in French and German. According to Lucy, she can speak 4 of the Chinese languages/dialects and can understand most of the others. ....Don't ya just hate these clever cows?? hahaha!!
We keep getting confused between dialects and accents. if your talking about a dialect as being a different language yes your right. If your talking about dialect as being an accent of Mandarin then you shouldn't have too much trouble understanding it, and with those understanding you with your classic Mandarin.
Even talking about it, ....is now getting me confused!! ...haha!!
David.....