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I've been talking with a Japanese exchange student at my college. For 4 years I've been studying Japanese and we get along just fine most of the time but sometimes even I get a bit lost.
He's from Kobe so perhaps it's a part of his dialect.
My question is, what does「なにしてたん？」mean? The main thing that confuses me is たん.
何をしていたのですか？ : Root
何をしていたの？ : Drop formal ending.
何していたの？ : Colloquial drop of particle.
何してたの？ : Colloquial drop of syllable.
何してたん？ : Lazy end turns の into ん.
何してたん is the same as 何していたの (that is, 'What were you/have you been doing?'). In standard Japanese, の can be contracted to ん in 何してたんだ or 何してたんですか; non-standard dialects use it more broadly.
It's Kansai dialect. In Kansai, we often end sentences with ん as in:
[なにしてたん]{LLHHLH}？（なにしてたんだ？/なにしてたの？）What have you been doing?
～[しててん]{HHLL}。（～してたんだ。/～してたのよ。）I was doing ~~.
～[してんねん]{HHHLL}。（～してるんだ。/～してるのよ。）I'm doing ~~.
[なにしたん]{LLHLH}？（なにしたんだ？/なにしたの？）What did you do?
～[してん]{HLL}。（～したんだ。/～したのよ。）I did ~~.
～[すんねん]{HHLL}。（～するんだよ。/するのよ。）I'll do~~.
[知らんねん]{HHHLL}。（知らないんだ。）I don't know.
[さむいん]{HLLH}？ （寒いの？）Are you cold?
[さむいねん]{HLLLL}。（寒いんだよ。/寒いのよ。）I'm cold.
[ちゃうやん]{HHHLL}。（違うじゃないか。）It's not so, is it?
[ゆうたやん]{HLLLL}。（言ったじゃないか。）I said so, didn't I?
