They are the quasi-official languages in Hong Kong. Therefore, people from Hong Kong should be able to speak Standard Mandarin Chinese, but in fact, many people from Hong Kong speak fluent Cantonese and poor Mandarin.
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Do Hong Kongers learn Mandarin?
Mandarin is not just spoken on the mainland, but also in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and elsewhere throughout the world. It is now the lingua franca for the Chinese language globally. But most Hongkongers cannot speak Mandarin fluently.
Is it OK to speak Mandarin in Hong Kong?
People in Hong Kong resent not people who speak Mandarin in general, but who are – at least in one’s imagination – associated with people who came to visit from Mainland China. Many issues generally around etiquette, politeness (or the lack of), lawlessness (or rulelessness?), cheap and disrespectful to others.
Can Chinese people understand Mandarin?
Of the 70% of the population who can speak Mandarin, many do not do it well enough, a ministry spokeswoman told Xinhua news agency on Thursday.Mandarin – formally called Putonghua in China, meaning “common tongue” – is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world.
Should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin Hong Kong?
If you want to be more widely understood, you should learn Mandarin. Nowadays with more and more trade and communication between Hong Kong and mainland China, more and more Cantonese speakers are learning Mandarin. Of course, if you plan to travel or work in China in the future, you can learn Mandarin.
Should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin?
It really depends on what you want to do. If you’re in Hong Kong, then by all means learn Cantonese. If you want to read Tang poetry, then learn Cantonese, because the poems still rhyme in Cantonese, where they may not in Mandarin. But if you want a generally useful language, learn Mandarin.
Is Cantonese still spoken in Hong Kong?
The principal language of Hong Kong is standard Cantonese (粵語, 廣州話, 廣東話, 廣府話, 白話, 本地話), spoken by 88.9% of the population at home daily. As an official language, it is used in education, broadcasting, government administration, legislation and judiciary, as well as for daily communication.
What language do Hong Kong Chinese speak?
ChineseEnglish
Is English spoken in Hong Kong?
English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong, and is used widely in the Government, academic circles, business and the courts. All road and government signs are bilingual. Those who spoke English or were taught English were considered the elite and upperclassmen.
What’s the hardest language to learn?
Mandarin
Mandarin
As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.
Can Cantonese understand Chinese?
Chinese is not simply divided into Mandarin and Cantonese.Although Cantonese and Mandarin have many similarities, they are not mutually intelligible. This means that, presuming one has no significant exposure or training, a speaker of Mandarin will understand little to nothing of Cantonese and vice-versa.
Which language is easiest to learn?
10 Easiest Languages for English speakers to learn
- Afrikaans. Like English, Afrikaans is in the West Germanic language family.
- French.
- Spanish.
- Dutch.
- Norwegian.
- Portuguese.
- Swedish.
- Italian.
Can you understand Hong Kong if you don’t speak Cantonese?
Hong Kong people don’t learn Cantonese, just speak it.“If you have enough confidence to continue speaking in Cantonese, then they will too. You have to persevere.” While Hong Kong is a city where many speak English or Mandarin, Cantonese dominates the local language scene.
Is Guangdong Cantonese?
Languages and ethnicities
The majority of the province’s population is Han Chinese. Within the Han Chinese, the largest subgroup in Guangdong are the Cantonese people. Two other major groups are the Teochew people in Chaoshan and the Hakka people in Huizhou, Meizhou, Heyuan, Shaoguan and Zhanjiang.
What is the hardest Chinese dialect to learn?
1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons.
Is Cantonese a dying language?
According to these experts, Cantonese isn’t dying at all. For now. “From a linguistic point of view, it’s not endangered at all. It’s doing quite well compared to other languages in the China region,” said Mr Lau.
How long does it take to be fluent in Mandarin?
It takes a learner with average aptitude only 15 weeks to reach level 2 for Spanish or French, but about 50 weeks to reach a similar level of the Chinese language. If you want to be fully fluent in Mandarin, you’d better plan to spend about 230 weeks, which is about 4 years.
What is hello in Cantonese?
哈囉 is “hello” with a Cantonese pronunciation. We use it to greet people casually, just like you would use “hi” in English.哈囉，你好呀 (haa1 lo3，nei5 hou2 aa3), meaning “hello,” is usually used when you want to greet someone that you aren’t close with in a friendly way. It’s a more formal Cantonese greeting.
Does Taiwan speak Mandarin?
Mandarin Chinese has been the official language of Taiwan since 1945, and is the most spoken language in the country. It’s remarkably unchanged from the mainland variant of Mandarin that immigrants brought there, primarily in the 1940s, as they escaped political and military upheaval in that country.
Do all Chinese speak Mandarin?
Do All Chinese Speak Mandarin? Most Chinese speak standard Mandarin but not all. Mandarin is the most widely spoken dialect of Chinese, which is the worlds most spoken language, English coming 2nd, Spanish 3rd.
Is Cantonese harder than Mandarin?
Cantonese is seen to be more difficult because it has from 6 to 9 tones, each of which signify different things (while Mandarin only has 4 tones). In addition, because of its greater prevalence, it is easier to find Mandarin study materials than Cantonese study materials.
