Chaoshan people are one of the most distinctive ethnic groups in China. They are "traditional" in drinking tea, offering sacrifices and family relations, and are deeply proud of the dishes and language in their hometown. Guests who have just arrived in Chaoshan often hear local friends perform the eight tones of Chaoshan dialect. A Chinese teaching researcher from the local education bureau told me that Putonghua teaching is a national law now, but in fact, Chinese education in Chaoshan might as well use dialects appropriately, especially ancient Chinese. Because in Chaoshan dialect, you can still read the rhymes and flat tones of ancient poems, but they have disappeared in Mandarin. "If you recite them in Chaoshan dialect, you can appreciate the beauty of those poems."

But this beautiful language will bring a lot of trouble to foreign tourists. I met a typical case when I first arrived in Chaoshan. It was at a small tobacco stall. Like many other elderly Chaoshan people, the proprietress can only listen to Mandarin, but can't speak Mandarin.

Me: "Is there any white sand?"

Proprietress: "No".

I admire it in my heart. It's really antique. I didn't say no, she said no. Just turned around, I heard a series of shouts behind me. Looking back, she held a box of white sand high and waved it like a national flag. She said, "Love to buy?"

I slipped a sentence: "buy!"

The proprietress's smile instantly condenses, and her hands are fixed in the air.

I learned later that it was all a misunderstanding. In Chaoshan dialect, "Wu" means "you"; And "no" means "no" or "no" in our conversation.

Even speaking Mandarin has problems. I was sitting in a ramen restaurant when several locals came in. One of them shouted to the boss, "Give me a bowl of noodle soup!" " "As luck would have it, the boss immediately brought a bowl of clear soup. The guest exclaimed in surprise, "Ah? Where are the noodles? "

It turns out that noodle soup is noodle soup (but "dried noodles" or "dried noodles" are not called "dried noodles", which makes me very confused). Don't panic if a friend from Chaoshan invites you to a "box lunch" next time. * When I first arrived, I found that many friends like to express their meaning in Chaoshan dialect. Unfortunately, they don't know the correct spelling of some words in Chaoshan Dictionary at all, and even the pronunciation of their misused words is completely different from this word. Here are two examples: the first time I saw someone write "Cage Yes", he wanted to express the meaning of "All Yes" in Chaoshan dialect. Unfortunately, this "cage". If you don't believe me, you can check the lyrics of Jay Chou's Where is the Train, which contains this word and has the same meaning. It can be seen that people in Taiwan Province Province are more particular about the words used in their hometown dialects. Another time, I saw someone write "Meritorious Mosquito". He wants to express "silly", but the word "gong" is never pronounced as "G not ng" in Chaoshan dialect, but only as "giong". The correct spelling should be "Deju", which means "Deju" in Cantonese. In recent years, Mandarin is gradually absorbing dialects used by the younger generation in the north and south of the Yangtze River. Shanghai children can't speak Shanghainese any more, so everything they say must be mixed with a few words of Mandarin. In China, Cantonese is the only one that stands out from the crowd. Only young people who can speak Cantonese can express what they want in Cantonese without a word of Mandarin. Chaoshan area is more serious. Many times, we can only call a person's name and say an idiom in Mandarin. When I was in junior high school, I once heard a ridiculous Chaoshan dialect called "Wu Zu", which turned out to be "insult"! Our younger generation doesn't even understand the insulting Chaoshan pronunciation "Bhú zê k", so we can only express it with "semi-salty Chaoshan Mandarin"! Although there was Confucius and Zheng Zheng in the development of Chaoshan dialect, it gradually moved closer to Putonghua, which was closer to Putonghua than Minnan dialect Zheng Zheng, which was more conducive for our students to go north. Moreover, there is nothing wrong with promoting Putonghua. It's not what I just said that we should oppose popularization, but dialects, which should be pure. Just like today's Chaoshan youth, a few words of Chaoshan dialect will always be mixed with a few words of Mandarin, which is different from old Shanghai. Don't even outsiders have to laugh?