Fri 28 Jul 2006
Why learn Cantonese? Mandarin is more useful and easier
Posted by 馬先生 under Cantonese
I’m sure most foreigners trying to learn Cantonese has heard “Why learn Cantonese? Mandarin is more useful and easier” at least once in their life.
I’ll give an example; you are in Hong Kong and 99% of people around you are speaking Cantonese. Your wife, radio, television, and all people on the streets are talking away in Cantonese. The cable television has less than 10 Mandarin and English channels out of 100+ Cantonese. You then start talking Cantonese and become entertainment for the myriads of small minded locals who truely believe only Chinese are capable of speaking any form of Chinese. Then you start receiving the daily annoyance “Why are you learning Cantonese? Mandarin is more useful and easier to learn“. They continue to state,
- Mandarin is the future and in the future nearly everyone in Hong Kong will have the ability to speak Mandarin. Many Hong Kong people can already speak Mandarin.Speaking tomorrows language today sure doesn’t make a lot of sense when I’m trying to order local food without pointing and looking like a circus act today.
- You can already speak English, that’s good enough. This one makes me extremely angry; so I wasted the hundreds and hundreds of hours on this language for nothing?
- There are too many tones in Cantonese; Cantonese has 6 tones, where Mandarin has only 4 making it easier for you to pick up the language quickly. In addition, you will never speak Cantonese with the correct accent. I wonder if they are challenging my ability to learn Cantonese (calling me stupid), or trying to brainwash me to give up so I never understand what people around me are saying?
- Mandarin is a language; while Cantonese is a dialect. You should learn the official language of China and not a dialect. How does this make any difference to my situation (everyone around me speaks Cantonese; and I’m being told to learn Mandarin). It doesn’t matter what the official status of a dialect is to a nation, the fact of the matter is that if I don’t learn the language/dialect what people around me are speaking; I will always feel left out at dinners, conversations and never integrate into society.
How on God’s earth can Mandarin or English be more useful for me when 100% of what I’m hearing is in Cantonese?
Hong Kong
February 25th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Most of my Hong Kong gwai lo friends chose Mandarin to learn over Cantonese. So funny, yes we go into China but most of the time live in Sheung Shui. (need I repeat Sheung Shui, English isn’t exactly that useful either around here).
So cool you’re from Sydney by the way. I’m from Melbourne. Also, have you found anything like the pod casts from Chinesepod.com for Cantonese? My fiance and I are talking about starting a website and making some once we’re married. At the moment you sound far more advanced in your Cantonese then me.
February 25th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Hello Dean. No there isn’t anything like the podcasts from Chinesepod.com for Cantonese. The only thing around is the MP3s my wife makes.
To progress you simply need to make simple rules:
1) only speak Cantonese
2) only watch Cantonese TV
3) no English speaking friends
4) no Mandarin
Regards to your fiancee, simply speak in Cantonese only. You won’t benefit or progress if you speak in English. Its important you speak only Cantonese for everything. That’s what I do with my wife, and I have progressed immensely in the last year.
Would be great if you have a website started, please ensure you have advanced dialogues.
Thanks
June 30th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Forget mandarin. Cantonese for life. Chinese writing should die though. We need a new writing system. Something phonetic.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Culture is embedded into a language. I want to learn and preserve the Cantonese language and the life style and traditions of the Hong Kong people. That is why I learn Cantonese. Maybe one day Mandarin will be the only surviving Chinese dialect used but that day is not today. Maybe Mandarin is more useful, but it is not my culture. Maybe one day i’ll be the only survivor keeping the Cantonese language and culture alive, but i’ll be proud to be the last.
September 21st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Here is my version.
You should learn Mandarin, it is more useful….
You mean its more useful for YOU if I learn mandarin since YOU know mandarin just like its more useful for me if you learn cantonese because I know cantonese. The truth of the matter is, I did not choose to invest many hours of my life to learn cantonese based on how useful this language is. I already speak, understand and write the most useful and robust language on this earth, english. I choose to study cantonese because I want to preserve the language. I do not want to see the language die. Also, stop telling people what they should and shouldn’t learn. If learning more languages
makes a person more marketable, then perhaps people should learn spanish, french and german. In fact, maybe you should listen to your own advice and learn more languages as well. Maybe you should start with cantonese.
Mandarin is a language; while Cantonese is a dialect. You should learn the official language of China and not a dialect.
To my understanding, Mandarin and Cantonese are two of the many hundreds of chinese dialects that exist. I’m tired of arguing what is now considered the official chinese language and I’m tired of fighting about what is called what. If mandarin is the official Chinese language, and Cantonese is not chinese, then so be it…. I will not learn chinese. I will learn cantonese. Please keep in mind though, To say a statement like “I don’t speak cantonese, I only speak chinese” is like saying “I’m not human, i’m just chinese”
There are too many tones in Cantonese; Cantonese has 6 tones, where Mandarin has only 4 making it easier for you to pick up the language quickly. In addition, you will never speak Cantonese with the correct accent.
With that logic, you should learn a non-tonal language like english because zero tones are easier to learn than 4 tones. If accent is the reason why a person shouldn’t learn a language, they why encourage people of other cultures and ethnicity to learn mandarin? They probably won’t speak mandarin with the correct accent either.
China will be the next super power…
Maybe they will, maybe they wont. All we know is that they’ve been saying that for years. China replacing the USA
as the next super power is a difficult yet not impossible task to accomplish. However, replacing the English language with the chinese language is a whole different ball game.
June 26th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I understand both due to my exposure to both of the languages at an early age. I still believe that Mandarin is a more important language. Because my dad never spoke it at home, I know nothing of Taiwanese. However, both my parents share Mandarin, so, without that, I wouldn’t be here. Cantonese is a fine dialect and all, and it’s arguably more useful here in LA, but almost everyone who speaks Cantonese can understand Mandarin, so there’s that safeguard if you can speak Mandarin. Cantonese will always persist as a cultural language, but for pragmatic purposes, Mandarin is more important.
September 10th, 2011 at 12:52 am
It depends on what part of the State you are in. I was born in Macau, grew up in Hong Kong and then when I came to US(San Francisco), there is a Chinatown and so easy to speak in Cantonese, I can understand Mandarin and speak very little Mandarin. I will in the near future learn Mandarin to improve my skills. It’s very useful to learn both. I am surrounded by Cantonese friends and family. But I understand Vietnamese and speak little of that, learn the easiest first and then learn the other. Learn both, it helps in the international business area and add on english, every company will be after you.
September 10th, 2011 at 1:00 am
I agree with asdf, you can’t tell which person to learn. My cantonese, I learned through speaking and not in school but with friends and family. If you have to learn Mandarin, go to school for it, it’s hard for a friend or family member to teach you unless they are a teacher. Learn both. I will learn more Mandarin later on free time, I know Spanish but might learn french later. To learn another language, you must be very diligent.