Also, one thing I forgot to mention: in Chinese there are a lot of different pronunciations per character if you are talking about all of the different dialects. Most people are learning Mandarin now, but there are still native dialects in different parts of China and Chinese speaking countries...
I have heard that if you get a hundred miles outside of Beijing pronunciation can be different enough in Mandarin that it is difficult to communicate.
Comments
Also, one thing I forgot to mention: in Chinese there are a lot of different pronunciations per character if you are talking about all of the different dialects. Most people are learning Mandarin now, but there are still native dialects in different parts of China and Chinese speaking countries...
I have heard that if you get a hundred miles outside of Beijing pronunciation can be different enough in Mandarin that it is difficult to communicate.
But once you are 100 miles out, everyone speaks mandarin in a similar way. (i.e. the problem is Beijinghua != Putonghua ;-)
Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification! :-)