Is Mandarin worthless in Hong Kong?
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Forum Name: Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages
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Printed Date: 13 June 2021 at 5:33am
Posted By: COF
Subject: Is Mandarin worthless in Hong Kong?
Date Posted: 31 May 2012 at 3:29pm
I've heard that if you live in Hong Kong and ever really want to integrate into local society and live outside the expat bubble, then Cantonese is an absolute must.
Likewise, if you want to find work in Hong Kong that isn't just aimed at expat workers, then a decent command of Cantonese is a neccessity and a decent command of Mandarin doesn't account for much in Hong Kong, possibly even less than English.
Is this true or is this an underestimation of the usefulness of Mandarin in Hong Kong?
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Replies:
Madarin is usefull in Hong Kong. I have been there I have used it. Of course the local dialect would be more benificial.
eggcluck on 31 May 2012
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Most foreign companies have sites only in English and Cantonese (in traditional characters), for example
the site of Canon Hong Kong.
So, Mandarin in simplified characters is not promoted.
Camundonguinho on 31 May 2012
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Aside from English, it's hard to think of a more useful second language anywhere in the world than Mandarin in Hong Kong.
Nowadays, more commonly asked (by expats) is the question, "Is Cantonese worthless in Hong Kong?".
(Not that I'm suggesting you make a thread about that, too..)
nway on 31 May 2012
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I think it's out of question, that Mandarin is beneficial in Hong Kong, but in order to "integrate into local society and live outside the expat bubble". I personally don't think the statement made above is an exaggeration, but then again, every region has a dominant language, and if you don't speak it you are an outsider.
Tropi on 31 May 2012
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eggcluck wrote:
Madarin is usefull in Hong Kong. I have been there I have used it. Of course the local dialect would be more benificial.
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Would you say Mandarin is more useful than English?
COF on 31 May 2012
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If your goal is to integrate into local society, then Mandarin is virtually useless.
Most of the people in Hong Kong only learn it for business purpose. In fact, most of them
even struggle to speak a word or two.
You shouldn't expect a local will speak Mandarin with you, especially when you're a
Caucasian. It would be as weird as speaking Spanish to a French.
versuss on 31 May 2012
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About 28 million mainlanders visited Hong Kong last year. By comparison, Hong Kong has a population of 7 million.
Certainly Cantonese is the language of choice of Hong Kongers—but Hong Kong doesn't just consist of Hong Kongers.
nway on 31 May 2012
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Ari? What's your take on this?
zhanglong on 02 June 2012
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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.
newyorkeric on 03 June 2012
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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.
hkboy on 04 June 2012
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Let me qualify that by saying ...New Territories and not so close to China...haha.
hkboy on 04 June 2012
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hkboy wrote:
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".
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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).
dampingwire on 04 June 2012
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http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/main-table/A107.html - 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.
smallwhite on 09 June 2012
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smallwhite wrote:
http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/main-table/A107.html - Census - Usual Language
2011
89.5% Cantonese
04.0% Other Chinese Dialects
03.5%Â 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. |
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As always, it's great to hear from native speakers. Glad to see you back on board.
zhanglong on 10 June 2012
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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
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau - 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%
Gorgoll2 on 21 June 2012
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Is it usual to revive an old thread...? But I'm quite driven to talk about my city.
If you come here as a tourist and plan to visit only the famous tourist sites
(referring to tourist gaze), English will do everything. In fact, English is preferred
to Mandarin. If you want to go elsewhere, say, the places we really live in, or the New
Territories (where I live), you'd better have a friend who is a local, but I do not
recommend learning Cantonese merely for touring.
If you want to live here, you can survive without Cantonese, and live quite happily
among the expat circle with English. However, if you want to UNDERSTAND most of the
Hong Kong, and be regarded as a real Hongkonger by most locals, Cantonese is a must.
Mandarin as well as standard written Chinese (closer to Mandarin; in fact quite
different from Cantonese) may seem ideal to communicate, but Cantonese is so much
different from the so-called standard Chinese, as Mandarin is known to most foreigners,
that without Cantonese, you can't really understand Hongkongers, our films, jokes, and
so on.
Cantonese culture and Cantonese language are distinct from those of the mainland as if
German and French are two distinct things in Switzerland. We actually see mainlanders
as foreigners. And, the majority, if not most, would consider the
Hong Kong which tourists know is COMPLETELY (I mean it) different from what we know of.
It's not untrue that our government has been creating another world merely for
tourists in the name of building a better place for everybody... (When non-locals tell
me Hong Kong is fascinating, I have to agree because
that world is really fantastic. But I wonder how much of that world resembles me...)
So, it depends on your purpose. If you would like to settle and live with the locals
like Mr hkboy, why don't you learn our language? Frankly, I'm proud of Cantonese
language, but have to nevertheless admit it's not that "useful".
evol on 22 January 2013
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Someone like myself who lived in Hong Kong & Canada would know. In Canada we have 2 official languages:
English & French. Suppose you know only English and travel into Quebec. The chance of getting services in
English would be higher in a city like Montreal where a majority of the population is bilingual. For the rest of
Quebec, if you confine yourself to the tourist areas you'd be fine. But if you are in the countryside, you better
know a few words in French or else you'd be more or less relying on phrase books and finger pointing.
Is Mandarin useless in Hong Kong? Sometime in the 1980s I was in Hong Kong for a visit. Went into a department
store. Some women supposedly from Taiwan went in to shop. There were several employees on that floor only 1
was fluent and comfortable enough to speak Mandarin to those customers. You are more likely to find services in
English than Mandarin.
And a few years back went to HK for a trip. This was over 10 years since the handover to China. Has anything
changed? After the transition, the Beijing government was determined to maintain the "1 Country, 2 Systems"
policy as part of the joint declaration with the outgoing British admin. Unlike the Mainland, the old education
system gave primary school students the choice of taking Cantonese as a first language, English as second or vice
versa. Now that you add Mandarin to the list, it is still a second language taken 1 class a day (not immersion) and
even the core subjects are taught in Cantonese.
Based on local media reports there is still a lot of "Us vs. Them" attitude. Them being the "inferior" people on the
Mainland . In the 1960s China suffered under a hardline dictatorship & the Cultural Revolution. People in HK
generally recognize they are politically tied to China but have their own government running their own affairs. A
year back the HK government launched something called: 國民教育 which translates roughly as "The Chinese
Citizen's Education". The purpose was to include passages in local Chinese textbooks that are patriotic to the
"Motherland". Right away there were protests in HK saying the text is not only "pro-China" but also "pro-
communist". On the street level, people resisted every effort to introduce "Simplified Chinese" writing in shops,
restaurants and street signs. Even local TV and movie actors like Jackie Chan & Chow Yun Fat who frequently
collaborate with actors on the Mainland for movie projects are sometimes seen as being too Pro-China.
Definitely being fluent Cantonese would be the first thing if you decide to stay put for at least 6 months. Just
across the border in Shenzhen is another story. You can do reasonably well in Mandarin.
shk00design on 04 November 2013
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