Originally Posted by
JeffS
All I know is that the Pimsleur course teaches you to say: Nǐ huì shuō yīngwén ma?
The few times I've used it, the person I spoke with understood me.
What is taught in the US and/or in textbooks while may be proper Mandarin (for written), it's often not used verbally in China and you'll get weird looks.
Examples:
1. Mainland Chinese don't call waitresses 小姐
2. They don't use full phrases, for example last night is not 昨天晚上 but 昨晚
3. Same for grammar. For example, you want to say I slept pretty well last night. Proper Chinese is 我昨天晚上睡觉睡得狠不错。 In China you'd just say 昨晚我睡得很不错。