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Q: Can you do a good impression of a Mainland Chinese person speaking English?
I ask this because, when most Americans imitate a Chinese accent, what they're actually doing (or trying to do) is a twangy Hong Kong Cantonese accent, not a real Mainland Putonghua-influenced one. I've found it very difficult, even after years of living in Beijing and hearing it every day, to do even a passable impression of Chinese English. Is that not strange? If I lived in Russia I'm pretty sure I'd be able to do a pretty solid Russian accent after 2 years.
Also this isn't a totally dumb and useless question; I think if we were able to imitate Mandarin Chinese-accented English it would mean we could also speak more native-like Mandarin, because we would be more attuned to the vowels native to Mandarin. I think the fact that I can't do a good accent means that there's something wrong with my Chinese too.
No. I have a hard enough time doing a North American impression, and I'm from North America!
thewetblanket:
IMO black comedians making fun of the way white people talk do the best American accent.
Nope, but I can do a drunk Bruce Lee that gets 'em rolling in the aisles. Gets me in real trouble when I do it during take-off.
ha ha, I was just going to say NO I can't because everytime I end up doing the HK one cuase it's more drastic and hence easier to do.
I would say that the reason you have trouble with a Mandarin accent is that you probably haven't even heard one, unless you live in a city where Mandarin is the local dialect. Most Chinese people have their home city's dialect as their first language, which is often not Mandarin. Then, they learn Mandarin, taking that accent with them. So a lot of them have an accent when speaking Mandarin (or any other language) but it's their home dialect's accent. Therefore, it's difficult to even find someone with a real Mandarin accent. If you work at a college, or live in an area where a lot of people from other cities live, you'll hear a ton of different accents on a daily basis. Where I lived, none of them were Mandarin accents.
