Shibboleth

I speak Mandarin, English and Spanish, and also, as a Southerner in China, I also speak the dialect of mandarin. Although there are many dialects in china, the difference of it between North and South is major. There are multiple ways to express a word in the same meaning but a different way. For example, for the word "what", northerners say "sha". However, southerners name it "shenme". It's not very common to hear the word "sha" in the southern school.

Meanwhile, in my family, I speak Ningbonese- a dialect in Ningbo. It is complicated and usually, people from different provinces, or even neighboring cities, won't understand what we are talking about. People from other cities think that Ningbonese sounds like Japanese. They may also sometimes have trouble distinguishing Ningbo citizens to Japanese just based on the language they speak.