Originally Posted by
HawaiiO
The "Old Beijing" (老北京） guy's Mandarin can be really strong and hard to understand, though i do enjoy listening to the accent.
Had one old dude offer to take me on a tour of the hutong, which i was semi-interested in, but had to decline since i could hardly understand what he was saying!
He probably mixed in some Beijing dialect words with the Mandarin that he was speaking.
The women tend to be easier to understand as their local accent isnt so strong.
I have a friend from HK, who speaks far better Mandarin than most of us, that came here for the sole purpose of learning Beijing Hua (which she reveres in the same manner that some attribute to the "Queen's English"). In fact, she went through no less than 5 tutors before she found someone with an accent that met her standards.
Personally, I think that Mandarin spoken in other parts of China sounds better than Beijing Hua (except for conflating "s" and "sh"; that's just annoying), but I do appreciate the traditions surrounding the Beijing dialect, and the perceived ties with nobility.