Is Taiwanese Mandarin same as Putonghua?

Even the difference between Beijing and Shanghai accents is strong. Get a native Mandarin speaker to listen to him, they should be able to tell whether he is speaking with a Beijing accent.

They are not the same verbally nor in writing. Taiwan using Traditionally chinese which generally what you find here in HK, while BJ-China is using the simplified chinese which I suppose being use by the rest of the world who read/write chinese. That said, I wouldn't rule out a tutor frm Taiwan as many could be originated frm China and do speak standard chinese.

The Taiwanese person IS a native Mandarin speaker.

If they speak with their friends, they are likely to speak with a Taiwanese accent (which I happen to think is lovely)

But there is nothing to stop a Taiwanese Mandarin instructor to have trained in Beijing and speak with a perfect Beijing accent.

(just like not everyone from Scotland sounds the same, some speak BBC English)


It all depends what your goal is, if you absolutely need to speak Beijing Mandarin or you just need to learn Mandarin and can refine your accent as required later.


I learned in Taiwan, but when I go to Beijing it just takes a few hours to adjust to the Beijing accent.

crj and raincatcher is correct. This has been beaten to death on these forums already (do a search), but the important points in short:

- For spoken Chinese: Need to distinguish between different dialects that are not mutually intelligible (e.g., putonghua/Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, etc.) and different accents of a dialect which are mutually intelligible (e.g, Beijing, Taipei, Shanghai accents of putonghua). It should be not be a problem to learn putonghua from a Taiwanese native putonghua speaker. While a Taipei accent is somewhat different from a Beijing one, it is perfectly acceptable and usable when communicating in mainland China. In fact, a lot of people go to Taiwan to lean putonghua there - in part because of the great infrastructure and teaching institutions, but also because the Taipei/Taiwan accent works so well in mainland China. You will almost certainly learn better putonghua from a native speaker from Taiwan than from a native Cantonese speaker who also speaks putonghua.

- For written Chinese: All dialects generally use the same written form (except for certain vernacularisms, direct representations of spoken language, and some localization), but need to distinguish between traditional (complex) and simplified characters. This distinction is not necessarily aligned with the spoken dialect – e.g., putonghua is spoken both in mainland China and Taiwan, but mainland uses simplified characters and Taiwan traditional ones; in contrast both Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional characters, but Cantonese dialect is spoken in the former and putonghua in the latter. Most people who read/write traditional characters are also competent in simplified Chinese, but this is not always the case (I read/write fairly fluently in traditional characters but am always struggling with simplified ones – but I am not a native Chinese speaker).

Even I learn Mandarin in HK but my mainland friends also found that I have northern chinese accent but taiwanese friends found i use quite a lot of their terms. (just because I talk to different people and I know those words only.)

In my point of view,you may focus on STANDARD MANDARIN rather than Bejinh accent if you are beginner. Taiwan Mandarin or Bejing/mainland mandarin, somehow just like British/American english. Which one do you think it is a standard? That's hard to say. I agree raincatcher. Even native mandarin speakers from Bejing, don't mean they speak well mandarin.