chinese contains various kinds of tones from different city, mate ppl from BJ speak mandarin, which is the official and normal language just like cockney just pay attention to 1 tones it will be easier for u xx

kinda agree with Peachey~It's hard to please all the people from different areas. Actually there are too many Chinese dialects, eg. Beijing dialect, Shanghai dialect, Dongbei dialect, Guangdong dialect, Sichuan dialect...it's kinda wierd to speak with a tone mixed with various dialects because everyone of them is unqiue in some way. I suggest that u pick up one dialect first.And when u r excellent enough in that dialect, u try to pick up another one. Then, u r able to speak whatever dialect u like~

Hi Tom, I had this problem also, when my Taiwanese friends were teaching me Guoyu. Basically, it was a case of trying to run before I knew how to walk. ;) I started to get it right when I hit the tones a little harder - I thought I sounded angry, but my friends reassured me I was speaking well. Then more practice to smooth it out. One strange thing about your question: why are you trying to speak to please both Shanghai(Wu) and Beijing(Mandarin) peoples? Imagine if someone learnt English, but tried to mix thick Liverpudlian and RP British together: that would sound equally weird to us. Best to pick one, methinks. :)

Don't worry about the tones, Shanghai friends and Beijing friends they all understand what you are saying. Speaking like an robot is fine, do more practices. One day you will become a faster and high tech robot. -D

Often talk with Chinese people,and they will correct ur tones .dont worry la ~. chinese is so diffcult, and u can say it fast, almost sounding local, u r already very good la ~