Taiwan vs. Mainland Mandarin Chinese

People in Taiwan and China both speak Mandarin Chinese. However, with some phrases they can mean completely different things. Tell us if you know anymore!
Twitter: @KarenJcChang

Make sure to share with your friends!
______________________________

______________________________

MOBILE LINKS: More OTGW Vids!

[CivilDefenseEngineer]

nobody ever told me about xiaojie... I called one of my friends from class by this and she gave me a weird look. Now I know why.

[xdan]

Hmm. Singaporeans like myself seem to be using a mixture of both versions.. Interesting..

[inominata]

i like Taiwan mandarin the most. It sound pretty nice.

[chrisfilet]

Beijinger here. Just wanted to point out a few things that are not 100% accurate in the video. 方便面 & 泡面 both work; 酒店 strictly means hotels in China (旅馆 means the same thing though less fancy), and restaurants ARE called 餐厅, same as in Taiwan. Also, 早上好 & 早安 both work. The former is more colloquial while the latter is just a tiny bit more formal. Hope this helps.

[sydpao]

Sounds like these ladies are in a rush.... Do you have somewhere to be while filming this? LOL

[lordofhatred]

Chinese music is called, in:
Hong Kong: 中樂
Singapore/Malaysia: 華樂
Mainland China: 民樂
Taiwan: 國樂
The four characters make up 中華民國, "Republic of China."

[milu]

I'm chinese (actually abc), but I like Taiwanese accent better :D It sounds softer and more professional. Idk, is this weird? 

[Ctomfly]

I've been living in Taiwan for 5 years and I've heard mó tuō chē a little more often than jī chē. It's usually the older people calling them jī chē. I think this is because of the dominance of scooters in Taiwan that they're just labeling them all as scooters.

Perhaps the Chinese label them all as motorcycles since they use those more, but I've little experience in mainland Chinese.

Maybe it also shows what kind of TV shows the young people in Taiwan watch.

I've also heard people call table tennis pīng pāng qiú or just pīng pāng quite often. Can't say I've even heard zhuō qiú, but I probably just didn't know what they were saying when I did hear it.


Another one you left off was that many Taiwanese people will call their maternal grandmother amà and maternal grandfather agōng, but use the mainland mandarin normally for paternal grandparents. The paternal grandparent names yéye and nǎinai also used for addressing elderly neighbors.

[tylorfeng]

I'm from mainland. It's very common that one single thing can be expressed by using many different words. So most of the Taiwan words mentioned in the video are also used in mainland. Because the mainland mandarin is a compound of all Chinese dialect.

[azntang]

This video is incredibly inaccurate and misleading. Many of the noted phrases that have different meaning in Taiwan and China are mostly synonyms or another word with the same meaning. An example of this is saying "zao an" for good morning in Taiwan and saying "zhao shang hao" for good morning in China. Those two words have the same meaning just like "Hi' and "Hello" and they are both used in China. Also the phrase "xiao jie" for young miss only means prostitute when your in shanghai because that's what people called prostitutes in shanghai back in the 19th century. Anywhere else is china, the phrase "Xiao Jie" still means young lady. In Conclusion, most of the noted phrases is not a difference in culture rather a choice of words.

[kabedondon]

I'm not a native speaker of Mandarin but, from my experience of living in China a few years, "Xiao Jie" seemed acceptable and even widely used in Beijing in normal situations. So, I think maybe this is something that varies from region to region.

[miaz]

I am from Beijing and both name are acceptable, it is more like a personal preference. 

[elwynbrooks]

Haha, and Cantonese is halfway between the two and then makes its own stuff up periodically.

Oh language <3

[zhiyongpan]

I am from the mainland China. Actually, many words they mentioned are the same, we also use them in Mainland China. I think only pineapple, subway, motorcycle, text messages, table tennis and snooker are different. 

[chochooshoe]

your video is misleading. almost all the examples you gave (in Taiwan you use this and in mainland china you used that to mean that), they are actually both perfectly understandable in both places - most of them are used in both places too.

[loccp]

These languages differences are so interesting

[hawaiibo]

no no no! you guys forgot to mention the most important point. Mainland Chinese talk like they are yelling angrily (even though they are not angry), but Taiwanese talk with manner.

[TheLivetuner]

Most of those differences are really miniscule, they're pretty much synonymous at least in mainland China and can be used interchangeably.

[linhuihui]

This is really interesting to know because in Singapore, the chinese we use is a mix of both kinds! :)

[VTPPGLVR]

Very interesting! I’m learning Mandarin so I can talk to my friends from Taiwan in their first language, but my tutor is from Beijing! So she told me I was saying things incorrectly until we realized that I was finding Taiwanese study materials.