If I learn to talk like my co-worker from Taipei, is that likely to make things difficult for me on the mainland (whether by impeding understanding or by arousing suspicions)?
I have no idea if and when I'll visit either China, but I've been considering it.
It is not "bad" at all.
People speak mandarin in Mainland China and Taiwan can understand each other without difficulty.
There are some word usages differences though, but usually it is not a problem.
below is based on my experience only, read it with caution :) btw, the sampling size is 100,000+, over recent decades.
personally, i think that people from taipei have the highest marks in comparison.
taipei - 100
pronunciation is crisp, clear, amongst all generations. people are civilised, polite and tolerance to mistakes.
rest of taiwan - 97
with accent, very slightly, others are same as above.
i can guess the origins from hearing their mandarin.
native of peking - 95
pronunciation is clear, just the para-language aspects are inferior to taiwanese.
residents of peking have a mixed result, from average to good.
foreigners learning mandarin in peking; errr, they're too feminine. i suspect that the teaching is deliberate, trying to "internalise" a coordinate attitude into the language for foreigners.
shanghai - 90
with accent, still easy to comprehend, again, the para-language aspects are, aiii, you guess it :(
again, foreigners learning mandarin in shanghai, too feminine in expression.
people from hunan, sichuan and fujian, their mandarin are quite difficult to understand.
the rest, the young generation (20 - 40) are good, older one are poor to average.
if you can learn mandarin from a taiwanese colleague, don't miss the chance; you made good karma in the past :)
btw, may i ask, who choose the chinese name for you? it's a very good one for foreigner
Taiwanese accent are totally OK, easier to understand than half of mainland accents.
In fact, Taiwanese accent is the only accent that others can understand beyond the sourth of Yellow River. Thank Chiang.
taiwanese Chinese sounds pretty lovely just like a lolita pestering her dad to buy some candy.
This would be the equivalent of asking which English accent is the best, or if one is better than the other.
My Mandarin is from northern Taiwan, and my Cantonese is from Hong Kong, with a bit of Hakka tossed in. I've been told my speaking voice and mannerism is far more 溫柔 in both Cantonese and Mandarin, compared to my English. I guess it's because I use Chinese at home and English everywhere else. Not having to conduct business meetings in Mandarin makes me much more pleasant to converse with, I'm sure.
In my experience with the Taiwanese Mandarin, there is less distinction between 紙 and 子, 詩 and 思, no added 兒, and minimal distinction between 分 and 風. So if I'm speaking to someone from China, I do my best to enunciate, because I naturally don't stress the differences. Some Northerners will laugh at me, while others tell me my Mandarin is easy on the ears, and feminine.
Most native North American speakers would agree that the generic British English accent is lovely to hear. I've been told my Canadian English accent is charming, but to me, it's just English.
I really enjoy listening to Mark Rowswell's (aka Dashan) Mandarin. I'd like to have the equivalent of that, in my French, one day when I'm ready to pick it up again.
So is it "bad" to learn Mandarin from a native Taiwanese Mandarin speaker? If you find her speech and mannerisms to be pleasant, it's not "bad".
