Spanish vs Chinese NYT (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Spanish vs Chinese NYT
Tags: United States \| Usefulness \| Mandarin \| Spanish
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

41 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

jsun
Groupie
Joined 5090 days ago
62 posts - 129 votes

Message 41 of 41

19 January 2011 at 10:34am | IP Logged

irrationale wrote:

tracker465 wrote:

Some Chinese dialects are spoken in the
numerous
Chinese restaurants in the area, but I doubt that the people are speaking Mandarin. Without
the
immediate feelings of usefulness, I really doubt that most children are going to care to learn
Chinese either.

I concur with this. I was also shocked when I tried to speak Mandarin in a few Chinese
restaurants around town and was met with "I just speak Cantonese".

Cantonese is the linguafranca of "Chinese" restaurant. I'm not joking.
I even met Mexican who could speak simple Cantonese phrases trying to sell me some fruit
basket in California. It turns out that many Cantonese people buy stuff from them. As far as I
know, Cantonese people who work in "Chinese" restaurants speak some Spanish and
Mexican who work with them also speak some simple Cantonese, such as numbers and
instructions.
The mainstream American go with Mandarin but Mexican American who work with
Chinese tend to speak a little bit Cantonese.

Edited by jsun on 19 January 2011 at 10:46am

2 persons have voted this message useful

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