Without a source, I think Han Chinese speak eight different languages. Dialects number in the thousands.

I have been told Kunming Hua is Mandarin and is easily understood by all Mandarin speakers. I am sure many Northerners would be surprised.

Note: in 2007, "Ministry of Education found that only 53% of people could "effectively communicate" in Mandarin, Xinhua reported.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6426005.stm

Getting from 53% to 30% in seven years is huge education progress! I have to smile at Chinese statistics; in 2007 it was claimed 25% of Beijingers spoke English.

Ha haa, who told you that? I have observed Mandarin speakers from different parts of China trying to understand Kunming hua with partial success... but they often have about as much chance as understanding English!

云南人没你们想象那么难处,云南方言也没你们想象那么那学,如有想交朋友、想提高中文的朋友可以找我,让我们互相学习吧

小强,谢谢你。有时候,我必须写中国字在昆明被理解。

不客气！
看到你的回复我很开心。
我有时候遇到外国朋友,互相交流遇到困难时,把难以理解的单词写下来交流就容易多了。这是一个很好的方法。
你发表的这个Forums很有用,非常感谢你。

I know local people but would hardly call most of them friends. I do practice Chinese with a couple but usually in the form of using Hanzi in something like Wechat. My oral Chinese needs work for sure but I do not think I will ever be at a conversation level as I cannot seem to understand what I am hearing unless it is on one of those language MP3 type lessons, then I am okay.

As far as learning the culture through friends I am not sure what that means. Me being scolded at meals fro breaking some strange dining tradition that came into existence five seconds ago? I also notice that friendship in China comes with strings real fast. Once I meet someday I am my wife are told "if you need anything, ever, no matter what, blah, blah... ask me. I can do it!" Well, for some reason that "promise" seems as real as having already done those things to many Chinese people, and in no time they are calling wanting really big favors from or through my Chinese wife. These favors can range from me working out deals with the school for their friends (not even the "friend" themselves) to park their cars permanently on the campus, or to teach their friend's kid English FOR FREE or, or course, to borrow money. They will not ask me directly for money but go through my wife and a couple times you get "but you are Chinese and you need to help me". It is often for some dumb ass business scheme or in one case a gal my wife had just met want to borrow 5000 RMB to pay back a loan from some other people she borrowed money from.

I have a couple friends at most from all my years here and those are borderline friendships really. I am also cautious of of any relationship where are a few minutes we are now best of "friends".

I can speak a basic level of Mandarin but if the other person cannot speak at least that level of English there will be no friendship I guess. Just went to Thailand where people really tried to use English all the time. Come back here and people who have even been to college and "studied" English for about 10 years can't even do numbers correctly and yet laugh at my poor but hardly zero level Chinese and try to get me to pronounce a word over and over 20 times and I can never seem to satisfy them. I can understand enough to know people here are typically interested in crap like how much money I make, where I met my wife and why we don't have a baby yet. Thrilling topics.

wow, thank you for everyone respond this forums, it means a lot for me, I just want figure out will you like Chinese friends or not, now I know most yours would like to make friends with the locals if you can communicate, and sorry for my mistake to confuse someone think of me as a foreigner, actually I m a local from Kunming, recently I want to make new friends no matter where are you from, so I post this forums to know your opionion.

as I know Kunming dialect is belong to mandarin, it's part of north China language, just a little difference on accent. and if you go to school you absolutely can speak mandarin, but the people whose age is over 40, most of them cannot speak mandarin, they only can speak mapu(mandarin in Kunming style), kinda of funning, so it means there is no problem with the mandarin of post 70, post 80,post 90.... in Yunnan. some other border areas,like Xinjiang,Neimenggu, the minority there has they own language and words, for them learning mandarin is as a second language, most of them not learning English at all till they go to university and start from zero to learn it.
There is my phone No. 18213034501, if u like to make friends or language exchange, just let me know. waiting for your text.(I'm Chinese)

@zhulaoye : seems Chinese always like to know the private things, like how much you make, age,something personal, and these in western might be not politesse, sorry for that, but what your feeling is kinda of Chinese culture,hahaha.

The better your Chinese gets the easier everything goes and the more you understand, and not just about the language. It takes awhile. A good attitude helps, whether or not the person you are speaking to seems to have one. Stereotypes can be broken down, one person at a time, despite the way they get reinforced by local & international media, governments, government media, school systems, anachronistic cultural attitudes, general ignorance & the will not to learn, etc.

@Alien: Agree with you. I think many locals really want to talk with foreigners but they just don't know how and what to start.