小囡讲上海闲话。Learning Shanghainese like a child

Often language learners hope they could learn a language like a child again. It seems so effortless and effective. Even though I don't agree with this view, and say that learning a language like a child is neither effortless nor effective for an adult, I, actually, did learn a language like a child as an adult: Shanghainese (Wikipedia article on Shanghainese). In this post, I'd like to introduce Shanghainese and my relationship with it and in the next post, I'll discuss my take on "Learning a language like a child".

Get a taste of how Shanghainese sounds on Wikitongues, a great site, where you can find recordings of an abundance of languages: Ivy speaking Shanghainese. 

I started to learn Shanghainese at the age of 31 when I moved to Shanghai for the second time. I stayed for five years and learnt the language in an immersive environment, my husband's Shanghainese speaking family, together with my kids. Ok, I cheated a bit. Before the birth of our first kid, I took one-on-one lessons once per week with a teacher. She taught me Shanghainese via Mandarin. But after the birth of the child, I only learnt Shanghainese by listening to the people around me. Thousands of repetitions of the same words and sentences again and again: "Are you tired? Are you hungry? Do you want to play?" Shanghainese was my kids' first language, Mandarin came second and German only third. I talked in Mandarin with my in-laws and with my kids I tried to speak German but sometimes I tried out all three languages, in the hope that they would react to one of them. For instance, when I wanted them to not touch something dirty, I said: "Schmutzig! Zang! Otso!" ("dirty" in German, Mandarin, Shanghainese)

"Isn't Shanghainese just a dialect of Mandarin (= Standard Chinese)?" might some of you ask, because Shanghainese is also known as Shanghai dialect. Well, it is a dialect but not of Mandarin but of Wu Chinese (Wikipedia article on Wu Chinese), a group of languages spoken by around 80 million people in the city of Shanghai, the province Zhejiang and parts of Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi. It is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin. So, if an elderly Shanghaier speaks pure Shanghainese, Chinese coming from other regions won't be able to understand him. Shanghai is such a big city, that the Shanghai dialect itself is divided into dialects and people from Pudong and Jiading speak different varieties of Shanghainese. But Shanghainese has changed a lot due to the influence of Mandarin and young people often speak only a diluted version of Shanghainese and use a lot of Mandarin words with Shanghainese pronunciation instead of the actual Shanghainese word. "Eggplant" in Shanghainese would be "luosu" (落苏) but many people just say "gazi" which is a Shanghainesed version of Mandarin's "qiézi" (茄子).

Shanghainese is a language that is perfect for just acquiring it like a child since it is a spoken only language and there is no standard transcription system for it. It is possible to write it with Chinese characters but even Shanghai natives aren't used to reading Shanghainese. There is one novel in Shanghainese that I know of and there is a Chinese Opera style in Shanghainese called Huju (沪剧). But in general, Shanghainese is only spoken in daily life, within family and friends. The official language at schools is Mandarin and many parents only speak Mandarin with their children, so that some kids, who are Shanghai natives, only learn Shanghainese at kindergarten or school (See this documentary: More schools to teach Shanghai dialect). It's ironic that Shanghainese was first actively replaced by Mandarin but now there are attempts to save it and re-introduce it. There are some radio and TV shows for the promotion for Shanghainese. My favourite ones were the following two (videos only in Shanghainese with Mandarin subtitles):

三人麻辣烫 (Sanren malatang / Three people spicy hot pot)
阿庆讲个故事 (Aqing jiang gushi / A Qing tells stories)

The Western woman in Sanren malatang is a Bulgarian woman (her Chinese name is Weili 魏丽), who is married to a real Shanghaier and learnt Shanghainese fluently. She was my role model and I always dreamt of one day taking part in this show as the freaky foreigner speaking Shanghainese like a local, but ok, I never made it to the Shanghai showbiz.

When my older child was 4 years old, we moved to Germany. The younger one was 2 years old and only spoke Shanghainese. But the move to Germany was the end of our immersion into Shanghainese and eventually, Shanghainese and Mandarin were replaced by German as the family language. That's why my level in Shanghainese is stuck at the level of a four-year-old. Like the girl in the pic. This year we will spend one month in Shanghai and I have hopes to finally level up my Shanghainese to the level of a pre-schooler...

Beginner courses and basic phrases Shanghainese

Shanghainese phrases & slang (English)
Shanghainese course in Chinese
Shanghainese course in English

Fun videos about Shanghai

Afu Thomas is a German who is married to a Shanghainese woman and makes hilarious videos in Mandarin and Shanghainese: Afu's Youtube channel
So, you want to get a Chinese wife?
Choose presents for Chinese New Year

Mamahuhu is my favourite comedy channel from Shanghai (in English, Mandarin and Shanghainese): Mamahuhu's Youtube channel 
When friends visit from overseas
Things you NEVER say if you live in Shanghai
The Laowai Baoan
WeChats groups in real life

Documentary about a Shanghainese sports teacher who teaches his students to rap
Music video by this teacher

"Let it go" from the movie Frozen in Shanghainese (yes, it's a parody)
Shanghainese Rap Song