Chinese mentality
Ting bu dong* – Communication difficulties in China
It is a common knowledge that Chinese language is very complicated both to learn and to perceive. This is true not only for foreigners, but native speakers as well.
There is a stereotype, that even Chinese people often don’t understand each other. Sometimes this is really so, and the main reason lies in the nature of the Chinese language itself. Technically speaking, “Chinese language” comprises seven major groups of dialects, used in the different regions of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The main dialects are Mandarin – the official language of Mainland China, and Cantonese, used in Hong Kong and Macao. The difference between them is huge, both in spelling and pronunciation.
The next important point is that both Mandarin, Cantonese, and all other Chinese dialects are tonal, that is, the same word, pronounced with different tonality, often means completely different things. For example, “Mā” in the first tone means “mother”, but the same word pronounced in the third tone means “horse”, all of a sudden. There are only around 414 syllables in Mandarin, while any European language has several thousands. These restrictions led to the emergence of tones, allowing to pronounce any syllable in a number of ways with different meanings.
Nevertheless, some words are totally consonant, which may create confusion and result in certain communication difficulties even among native speakers.
*ting bu dong – literally “I hear but don’t understand”.