QUOTE(Love*3 @ Feb 16 2007, 02:53 AM)

How does someone gain the skill to know what mandarin sounds like?
Long story. I've got quite a few Chinese friends and dated a half-Chinese girl, and they'd often speak Mandarin or Cantonese with their Chinese friends, and so on. I also blame Chinese movies of course, although most of the ones I've seen are Cantonese, a few were Mandarin.