Yes you will definitely be able to master the native accent in time, luckily Mandarin is a lot easier to pronounce properly for the Western tongue than Cantonese (which is what I grew up learning).
I will defintely check that app out, might be handy in teaching my kids Chinese :)
Aha! That explains why on one of my posts all the Mandarin speakers said; yes they can understand me. But all the Cantonese speakers said they had trouble with a lot of my phrases.
So you grew up learning Cantonese; when did you learn Mandarin?
Please do check out the app it's excellent, and made by Chinese people, plus it has lots of in-app resources that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of.
My 7 year old daughter uses it with me sometimes and she loves it, especially the parts where you speak into the mic :-)
Thanks for your comments and feedback, I truly value them.
Cg
Oh which post is that? If you don't mind linking me to it :)
I was born and raised in Hong Kong, so I learnt Cantonese Chinese there until I moved to the UK when I was 15. Learning Mandarin was only compulsory up until a certain age group back then, so I learnt it for a bit (I'm sure it's not as relaxed anymore nowadays though).
It's really peculiar but usually Cantonese speakrs can pretty much guess how the same character would be pronounced in Mandarin, by "tilting" the tone a bit (literally the best way I can describe it). I'll try and do a post about this one day to demonstrate it. The Chinese language is so complex and interesting, there are so many aspects that I'd love to do posts about. Like this tongue twister prose that I love: https://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/stonelion.php You should try it out 😆
And thanks, my eldest is 6, and it sounds like something she'd love too! I'm going to get the app now :)
Always happy to give value if and when I can. Glad to have found you on Steemit!
Cool, this is the post in question https://steemit.com/learnchinese/@cryptogee/can-chinese-people-understand-me-learn-mandarin-with-cryptogee-restaurants
That's very interesting about Cantonese; I actually thought it was the other way round that Mandarin speakers found it easy to switch. Although it makes sense because Mandarin is more widely spoken (I think.)
My word those tongue twisters! I was just the other day telling my wife that the sound shi seemed to be everywhere in Chinese. I really want to hear those phrases being said; you must put them in your video if you do one!
I'm very glad we found each other on Steemit as well! Steem on! :-D
Cg
That was a cool vid, it was pretty funny, but really just great that you are so eager to learn the language! And your daughter is so so sweet :)
I will try my best and get a video of that tongue twister at some point, I won't be able to pronounce it properly myself, but it will be at least be one hilarious video to make!