Would you rather learn Mandarin or Cantonese?
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at
5:38 pm
just a random poll…
@Natasha or anyone else
Really? Canto is being outlawed? What? Can someone give me more info on this? I’m going to Hong Kong next year, and I’m a Canto speaker.
Tagged with: canto • hong kong • natasha • random poll
Filed under: Learn to Speak Mandarin
Cantonese, because that’s what my parents speak, my wife speaks and my children speak.
Both would be equally difficult… and pointless(in my life). So I’d toss a coin if I had to choose one.
Mandarin because Cantonese is being pushed out and outlawed…….
Especially in Hong Kong…
Common sense…..
I know of the demonstrations to keep Cantonese alive but I ,,,,,well …would have to accept reality,
Mandarin , cantonese is not international…
Cantonese is not being outlawed. I don’t know where that ridiculous idea came from.
However, Mandarin is more widely spoken than Cantonese. Cantonese is a regional dialect (some classify it as a language), spoken throughout southeast China. There are 52,000,000 speakers in China (1984). 498,000 in Macau. Population total all countries: 55,541,660.
"Region Guangdong (except Hakka speaking areas northeast, Min Nan-speaking areas east, Hainan Island); Guangxi. Hong Kong and Macau. Also in Australia, Brunei, Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Indonesia (Java and Bali), Malaysia (Peninsular), Mauritius, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam."
https://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yue
"There are 840,000,000 speakers of Mandarin in China (2000 census), increasing. 70% of Chinese language users speak a Mandarin dialect as their mother tongue, including 9,816,805 Hui (2000 census) and 10,682,262 Manchu. 1,182,950,000 Han in China (2005 census). Population total all countries: 845,456,760.
"Region Widespread north of Changjiang River, a belt south of the Changjiang from Qiujiang (Jiangxi) to Zhenjiang (Jiangsu), Hubei, except southeast corner, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, northwest part of Guangxi, and northwest corner of Hunan. Also in Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Indonesia (Java and Bali), Laos, Libya, Malaysia (Peninsular), Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Philippines, Russian Federation (Asia), Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam, Zambia."
https://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cmn
If you’re going to focus on doing business in southeast China, then perhaps Cantonese would be the best choice. However, I prefer to learn Mandarin since I’m involved in the education sector of the country.
EDIT: Little One (aka "L-o"), I guess the success of Guangdong and Hong Kong is solely based on farmers and fortune cookie factory workers? What’s wrong with being a farmer? Do you like to eat? Someone had to grow that food! What’s wrong with being a factory worker? Someone had to make everything you are wearing, using, consuming, etc.
In other words, shed the racist attitude and you’ll be happier in life.
this question is like asking ”do u want to learn to speak standard American English or speak with South Carolina accent?”
cantonese has no written form. if u want to sell vegetables or work in a fortune cookie factory in a Chinatown, learn cantonese.
if u want to learn an ancient culture and a beautiful language, learn mandarin which is standard chinese.
I think I would pick Mandarin. I already learn ed Cantonese as my first language, but after learning English and French it kinda dropped.
But Mandarin is the original language and more widely known. Also cantonese is a type of dialect from the Canton province that originated from Mandarin.
If I were to learn Mandarin, I think it would be easier to learn Cantonese, Hoke etc…
BUT then again everyone I know speaks cantonese….
Dilemma….
Cantonese is *not* accented Mandarin, moron. It’s a different dialect, a different language almost if you’re not tone-deaf.
If you want to speak the language of the fascist communist party, or bribe corrupt officials, dumb down your literacy, since the mainland uses simplified characters, learn Mandarin.
If you want to challenge yourself more (mandarin has 4, cantonese has 9 tones, holla!), learn the language of Bruce Lee and the millions of clever immigrants who advanced in entrepreneurship and made better lives for themselves in US and Canada, as well as Hong Kong- voted the freest economy in the world, where they still use TRADITIONAL characters, and where films aren’t all propaganda, learn Cantonese.