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Studying in Hong Kong - Canto or Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates |  | |
| Louis Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5736 days ago 92 posts - 110 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 1 of 15 26 February 2010 at 4:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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I was recently accepted to study law at Hong Kong University and if I decide to go I will, at most, spend five years living there. It would be foolish if I didn't at least attempt to learn Chinese while I am there. The main problem is, I don't know which dialect of Chinese to learn. I obviously know Cantonese is the preferred language by the population but since the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, Mandarin is apparently taught there in addition to English. Would I be better off taking classes to learn Cantonese and practicing among my classmates or taking class to learn Mandarin and not merely limiting myself to Guangdong, Hong Kong, and various Chinatowns around the world? At this point, I have no personal preference.
In case there is any confusion, all of HKU's programs are in English. I will learn Chinese in addition to studying for my law degree. I am also somewhat confused about written Chinese, particularly in Hong Kong. When Hong Kongers write in Cantonese or Mandarin, do they use traditional characters? Are there any substantial differences between written Cantonese and written Mandarin? I have read through a few older threads on HTLAL about this but none seemed to directly address my juvenile question. I greatly appreciate your help, thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5428 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 15 26 February 2010 at 5:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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I believe writing in China is simplified, according to my Taiwanese friend. Also, all dialects of Chinese are written the same. All Chinese writing can be understood by all Chinese speakers, even the writings of Confucious could be understood by modern Chinamen.
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| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5496 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 3 of 15 26 February 2010 at 6:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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As much as I prefer to see another learner of Cantonese, you are probably better off learning Mandarin. Most people will just assume you are learning Mandarin, not Cantonese. And you will find a lot of resistance. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFaCDyPPk7s&feature=related
Also, if you want to be practical in terms of your law practice, Mandarin will get you farther than Cantonese, unless you are planning to work with the commoners in HK or Guangdong. For writing, HK still uses traditional, although the rest of China uses Simplified. And written Cantonese can be different from written Mandarin, but very few people actually write down Cantonese the way it is spoken. They just write in "Standard Chinese", which is recited more similarly to Mandarin than Cantonese. For example, the subtitles in the above video are in Cantonese, and I doubt those subtitles will make much sense to Mandarin speakers. And even not much sense a lot of Cantonese speakers, since they aren't used to seeing Cantonese written down verbatim. edit: reading this again "commoners" could have a negative connotation. I meant to say if you are doing non-profit law or those law clinics, where you help working folk. They will definitely prefer to speak Cantonese than Mandarin. Edited by indiana83 on 27 February 2010 at 12:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6300 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 4 of 15 26 February 2010 at 6:45am | IP Logged | |||||
1. They use traditional characters in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. They use simplified characters in the mainland. 2. All Chinese dialects are not written the same but people make a point to write in standard written Chinese based on spoken Mandarin for official stuff and newspapers. Buy some Hong Kong comic books and show them to some guy from Beijing who has never studied Cantonese and watch the expression on his face if you don't believe me. 3. Not everyone who speaks Chinese, reads and writes Chinese. 4. The writings of Confucius are in classical Chinese. Anyone who went to a decent high school should be able to read them. Take out the punctuation and write in traditional characters and it becomes more difficult for the average person to read. Cantonese is tough but fun. Mandarin is spoken by a lot more people. It will take extra effort to learn Mandarin in Hong Kong. Five years is plenty of time to learn both if you can stay on target. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6588 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 15 26 February 2010 at 7:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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Many people say that Hong Kong residents don't want you learning Cantonese and can react quite negatively to a westerner speaking it. That is probably a good reason not to. Then again, you probably won't have that much use for your Mandarin, since English is so widespread and Mandarin is pretty new on the block. While you can probably find some speakers, you can't assume someone you meet on the street knows Mandarin, I suspect.
All above should be taken with a grain of salt, since I haven't actually been to Hong Kong. I'm jus reiterating what others have said to me since I started studying Cantonese. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5597 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 6 of 15 28 February 2010 at 3:53am | IP Logged | |||||
I believe the term "Chinamen" is considered to be offensive. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| KevinC Pentaglot Newbie Spain Joined 5424 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, EnglishC2, SpanishB2, Mandarin, FrenchB2 Studies: Catalan | Message 7 of 15 13 March 2010 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For your information, there is really no need for you to learn Cantonese in Hong Kong
simply because a lot of Chinese with at least a secondary education can communicate with you in English (though in my opinion, most of them have attained at most an intermediate level of proficiency (B1-B2 )). Most Chinese rarely converse in English among themselves (of course, here and there, the conversations are sprinkled with English words). However, your speaking English to them will actually "make their day" because you have given them a "golden" opportunity to practise their English and I think they would be thankful to you for doing so. So the reality is you can get by living here with a minimal knowledge of Cantonese and surely, you can learn the basics of the language as you go along, which is what most Westerners who live in HK do. Edited by KevinC on 13 March 2010 at 6:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5428 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 15 14 March 2010 at 4:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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