Surely, from a business perspective, Cantonese is more useful? Yes, Mandarin is spoken by (way) more people, but you can’t deny that the most economically-booming places in China speak Cantonese (Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau just to name a few). So why are foreigners being told time after time that it’s better to learn Mandarin?
@Mike: WORNG. Only 4% of Hong Kong speaks Mandarin.
Please answers from people who actually know what they’re talking about.
@Casey Y: WRONG. How are you top contributer? You can’t even perform a simple google search? Mandarin and Cantonese are completely, and utterly unintelligible. Simple google search before you spew out nonsense.
One last time: If you even NEED to google before answering, that means you DON’T know what you’re talkng about. And talking about it without even googling first is even MORE idiotic. Again, ONLY ANSWERS FROM PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.