Dinner: 晚餐 or 晚飯? Which do you say?

[Shelley]

1 hour ago, Christa said:

In Taiwan. It's more or less exclusively 晚餐 over there.

Ah well, that explains everything.

 

[abcdefg]

13 hours ago, Christa said:

In Taiwan. It's more or less exclusively 晚餐 over there.

 

I see. Thanks.

[Christa]

20 hours ago, Shelley said:

Ah well, that explains everything.

 

Is Taiwan sort of seen as the weirdo of the Chinese speaking world then? 

20 hours ago, Shelley said:

21 hours ago, Christa said:

In Taiwan. It's more or less exclusively 晚餐 over there.

Ah well, that explains everything.

 

Is Taiwan sort of seen as the weirdo of the Chinese speaking world then? 

20 hours ago, Shelley said:

21 hours ago, Christa said:

In Taiwan. It's more or less exclusively 晚餐 over there.

Ah well, that explains everything.

 

Is Taiwan sort of seen as the weirdo of the Chinese speaking world then?

[Christa]

Wow, that reply went crazy...

[imron]

5 minutes ago, Christa said:

Is Taiwan sort of seen as the weirdo of the Chinese speaking world then?

No more than the U.S. is seen as the weirdo of the English speaking world.

[Christa]

17 minutes ago, imron said:

No more than the U.S. is seen as the weirdo of the English speaking world.

 

Oh dear...

[abcdefg]

I don't think of Taiwan as weird. Just different from the mainland. Plus I don't know Taiwan's speech habits as well; haven't lived there, only visited. 

 

 

[imron]

25 minutes ago, Christa said:

Oh dear...

 

If you are English, and you go to the U.S. people will think you speak funny.  If you are from the US and go to England people will think you speak funny.

 

Neither sounds funny to their respective local populations.

[Flickserve]

I asked this question. From a mainland perspective, 晚餐 is 書面 but not everybody may differentiate.

[Shelley]

It is not the weirdo, as others have said its just different.

 

I have noticed that some of the questions you ask are similar to this one and it could be that you are learning the Taiwanese version but then come across the Beijing version or visa versa and so are confused.

If you are planning on go to Taiwan then you need to concentrate on that or if you are planning on going to the mainland then of course you should learn that usage.

 

If it was me I would pick one and stick to that, as you come across different usage you can recognise it for what it is and file it away for later as it were.

 

[Lu]

51 minutes ago, Shelley said:

If it was me I would pick one and stick to that, as you come across different usage you can recognise it for what it is and file it away for later as it were.

The problem (my problem, at least) is that you hardly limit yourself to just one type of input. You watch movies, listen to songs, read books, pick up another textbook, talk to a fellow student, travel... You usually learn mainly one type of Mandarin, but stray words get in and you don't always notice when you learn something that is actually the other type of usage. People understand you just fine, or chalk it up to you being a learner, so nobody corrects you. And then one day you're suddenly confused: all this time I've been saying tóufǎ, but now it seems I've been saying it wrong and it's tóufà, or was it tóufa? And it's one thing if you notice this confusion and are able to sort it out (as Christa is doing here), but often you can't quite put a finger on what's happening.

My Chinese is messy in this way, in some places. I can tell my Fǎguó from my Fàguó, but am still not quite sure on 认识.

 

So yah, it's a good idea to pick one type of Chinese and stick to that, but the sticking is not always possible.

[somethingfunny]

Who else just looked up the pronunciation for 头发?

 

As an aside, the annoying thing about 头发 is it's one of those (rare) situations where two different traditional characters have been collapsed into one simplified character.  

 

(Additional aside for Imron: my Guifan dictionary specifically tells me 注意 不读fǎ)

[Publius]

Yeah, 髮, 法, 識 have different tones across the strait (usually happens with 入聲字). Hopefully you didn't pick up the really weird pronunciation of 和 (as in 我hàn你)

[Christa]

2 hours ago, imron said:

2 hours ago, Christa said:

Oh dear...

 

If you are English, and you go to the U.S. people will think you speak funny.  If you are from the US and go to England people will think you speak funny.

 

Neither sounds funny to their respective local populations.

 

By "oh dear..." I meant "oh no, I'm going to sound like a Yank!" - but I meant this in the friendliest, gently teasing kind of way of course. 

[Christa]

Part of my problem is that I've spent equal amounts of time in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Mainland. So my Chinese has become very, very mixed. As some of you have said, much of what I want to do is really to differentiate it so that I can switch and also so that I can make sure certain things I've been doing aren't simply mistakes that I am making that I have put down to regional variation.

 

I quite like the idea of Taiwan being the weirdo though. He who must not be named.

[Shelley]

Ya, it is a problem sticking with one type but if you follow one textbook, or one course etc so you learn all the same type, then as you branch out you can learn to question the source and discover its origin and then file it in the appropriate place.

I think it is good to be aware of these possible differences, as Taiwan uses Traditional characters this can give a clue. When I first started It didn't take long to start to recognise Traditional and that is helpful.

 

[imron]

1 hour ago, somethingfunny said:

my Guifan dictionary specifically tells me 注意

Gotta love the Guifan 注意s

16 minutes ago, Christa said:

手機 is the standard term for normal, everyday conversation, isn't it?

Yes.

[Lu]

1 hour ago, Publius said:

Hopefully you didn't pick up the really weird pronunciation of 和 (as in 我hàn你)

I had a classmate in Taiwan who very consistently read 和 as hàn. It's useful to know it exists, I guess.