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Are you sure you're not confusing the phonology of Chinese with that of Japanese? Because I have studied both, and what you say is true of Japanese, but most English-speaking people seem to find the Chinese consonants represented in pinyin by zh, ch, q, x and r quite challenging. In addition, the tones have no English equivalent, and are a bit of a bear for an English speaker to keep straight.

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Well, see e.g. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_(Mandarin)/Pinyin_Pronu... - under 'Pronounciation Basics'. I'm not a native English speaker, but speaking Russian, English and Norwegian I find it generally true.

(And yes as remarked below my first exposure to the language was in Taiwan, but the courses I follow are not Taiwan specific)

I think it depends on the accent. Many speakers of non-Beijing dialects carry a regional accent that are usually flatter on the consonants.

For example, if he learned Mandarin in Taiwan he could've picked up a southern accent.

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