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Is Mandarin worthless in Hong Kong? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4921 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes  Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 9 of 18 02 June 2012 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ari? What's your take on this?
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 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6371 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 18 03 June 2012 at 4:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I just visited Hong Kong for the first time a few weeks ago. I was shocked how little Cantonese I heard. Of course, many people do speak it but there were sooo many Mandarin speakers. In fact, it made me wonder if it was worth learning Cantonese at all (as a visitor. If you live there, it is still worth while). And of course it is very easy to get by in English.
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| hkboy Groupie Hong Kong Joined 5668 days ago 65 posts - 86 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Mandarin | Message 11 of 18 04 June 2012 at 8:25am | IP Logged | ||
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It's an interesting discussion. When I first came to HK 10 years ago, they all told me not to learn Cantonese and that it was "useless". I studied Mandarin for a long time but then I realized I had no one to talk to. I married a local and it's been Cantonese since then. Most people still tell me not to bother with Cantonese and to learn Mandarin.
Yes, I agree, if you go down to Central, TST, etc. you hear a lot of Mandarin. I remember my wife saying "it's like a different world here". I live in the New Territories and actually I don't ever remember hearing any Mandarin being spoken here. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hkboy Groupie Hong Kong Joined 5668 days ago 65 posts - 86 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Mandarin | Message 12 of 18 04 June 2012 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Let me qualify that by saying ...New Territories and not so close to China...haha.
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| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4657 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 18 04 June 2012 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||
A friend at work is from Hong Kong and is a native Cantonese speaker. When the subject of languages came up recently he said that Mandarin would be far more useful than Cantonese. (He also suggested that Cantonese, with its 9 tones, would be somewhat harder than mandarin, with 4). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5300 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 14 of 18 09 June 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Census - Usual Language 2011 89.5% Cantonese 04.0% Other Chinese Dialects 03.5% English 01.4% Putonghua Among "Other Chinese Dialects", we have more Hakka 客家 and Chiuzhou 潮洲 speakers than Mandarin speakers. I have people speaking Mandarin to me about once or twice a year, mostly tourists. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4921 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 15 of 18 10 June 2012 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | ||
As always, it's great to hear from native speakers. Glad to see you back on board. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5138 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 16 of 18 21 June 2012 at 2:09am | IP Logged | ||
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While I don´t know about Hong Kong, my friends from Macau told me every language is
understood there. My main Macaense friend is bilingual in Cantonense and Portuguese, and learned English, Mandarin and Japanese - It´s used by tourists - still in childhood. Census From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau Cantonense: 85.7% Other Chinese languages 6.7% Portuguese 0.6% Mandarin 3.2% English 1.5% Others 2.3% 1 person has voted this message useful |
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