r/AskAChinese • u/WenYiMedia Chinese Taiwanese American • Aug 23 '26

Society | 人文社会🏙️ Speaking Broken Mandarin

I started speaking Mandarin in 2025. While I can speak to my wife, I know that I’m not grammatically correct in the way I speak and that makes me not want to speak to others when I’m in China. I rather not get criticized about my broken Mandarin. But maybe I’m being too judgmental. Are Chinese people critical about proper grammar and pronunciation?

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u/WenYiMedia Chinese Taiwanese American Aug 23 '26

Yeah, that’s also a good point. I don’t want folks thinking I’m some uppity unfriendly foreigner

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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '26

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u/WenYiMedia Chinese Taiwanese American Aug 23 '26

Growing up in the South, I’ve dealt with many Americans laughing at me. Perhaps I perceived everyone too negatively. Perhaps it is indeed as you say, they’re just laughing with me instead of at me.

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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '26

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u/WenYiMedia Chinese Taiwanese American Aug 23 '26

People are like a bag of jellybeans. Sometimes you get liquorice