For Cantonese people, which do you prefer as your second language?
Cantonese people live in the PRC, and the language preferred by the Central government is Mandarin (And it is the Language of the majority of the people - 850 million).
So, how does Mandarin compare to English as a second language?
Do Cantonese people prefer to learn Mandarin BEFORE English, as a second language?
Do more Cantonese people (Those living in PRC) speak English than Mandarin?
And yes I know Mandarin and Cantonese share the same character system, but I am asking about SPOKEN language
Thank you very much
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First of all…I can guarantee that people from Macau and Hong Kong prefer to learn English before Mandarin, especially for the younger generation…
of course there is exception, because the Free Individual Traveler policy from China has brought Hong Kong and Macau many chances to earn money from the mainland Chinese, those people whom with jobs that serve Chinese would learn Mandarin ahead with English…
English is usually a must for you to get promoted in big company in Hong Kong; Mandarin is preferred but not required…
Generally, younger generation would know about English more, they usually suck with Mandarin…the 40+ generation usually knows Mandarin better than English though…
well i’m 14 and i came to the US from HK when i was 10 and i learned all three languages there. Mandarin is very hard to learn after learning cantonese first, becuase when you speak at first you will have the cantonese accent and its hard to break out of it. Most people in Hong Kong know english to a certain degree anyways becuase it was once a british colony and is the reason i’m a british citizen instead of a chinese citizen. Mandarin SOUNDS better than cantonese though i think, it sounds more melodic and its actually easier to learn because you can use pinyin to help you. Cantonese is sorta the street or slang language and people from the mainland often look down on it even though it is a good language to learn.
most people in new york that are chinese speak cantonese
(well if u want to live there)that is.
but learning mandrin is a good choice
In China, the official spoken language is Putonghua (not Mandarin – it is an old word – Putonghua means typical form of Chinese language). Supposedly all schools in China speak Putonghua and students should have to learn Chinese with Putonghua pin yin. So, Putonghua is the first language, Cantonese or Shanghainese are refered as dialects. English is the second language.
I’m from Hong Kong, my nephew and neices all have to learn Putonghua and English at school, they speak both 3 fluently. There is no preference for the kids here because the parents prefer them to speak as many languages as possible, but first of all, these 3 are the must.
My cousin’s daughter who is 9 now and she goes to international school where she meets different races classmates and she speaks Korean and Japanese as well (other than Cantonese, Putonghua, English) .. and she also can speak a bit of Indian.
All my cousins (about 15 of them) who live in PRC and are Cantonese native speakers can speak fluent Putonghua too, because they used it at school or University + they need to travel or work with people from other parts of China!
Cantonese and Putonghua DON’Tshare the same usage of characters, THOUGH, there is only one official Chinese written language that we learn from school, but when in dialects the way of expressions are very different.
For example:
Putonghua : 對不起, 我實在不明白你在說些甚麼!
Cantonese: 對唔住, 我實在唔明你係度講緊 D乜!