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This is an exciting moment in time, readers, for right now, we hold in our hands the linguistic future of John:
I’m thinking of learning Chinese.
Lately in the news they have been talking about China being the largest growing country in the world. I’m 16 and have just had the last FUCKING FRENCH EXAM EVER!! 😀
Answer me this, should I learn Chinese Mandarin or Cantonese? Is one easier than the other?
Not being versed in either, we are surrendering this decision to you:
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Answer Me This! Podcast 
June 3, 2010 at 10:34 pm |
Go with the Mandarin, because the characters are simplified and there are fewer tones to differentiate between. Also, the grammar is incredibly easy compared to European languages. The only hard part is learning the written language and the spoken language, because there isn’t much to put them together.
June 3, 2010 at 1:55 am |
If you’re interested in mainland China then Mandarin is the way to go. Most locals in Hong Kong speak excellent English, so while speaking Cantonese is a cool party trick it’s next to useless there. In the Cantonese-speaking parts of the mainland (mostly the southern province of Guangdong) most young people understand Mandarin as this is the standard dialect that must be used by teachers in all schools (although how strictly this is enforced I’ve no idea!).
As a Brit who hated French and German at school and gave up on languages at 15 I’ve really enjoyed studying Chinese since I moved here 5 years ago. There is less emphasis on grammar, no tenses (no verb conjugations, yay!) and an endless supply of people for you to practice massacring their language on. Would definitely recommend it, even just as a hobby.
Good luck!
Tom
June 2, 2010 at 4:59 pm |
mandarin is the standard pronunciation and cantonese a dialect popularized by colonial rule of hong kong and mass emigration in the 19th century. from experience, most people you meet, at least in hong kong, can understand mandarin and as a mandarin speaker it only took me a few weeks before i could reasonably understand everyday cantonese.
cantonese has 9 tonal variants and mandarin has only four so i would imagine it would be more difficult to learn. that said, some people find cantonese a little easier because the sounds are a bit softer and more similar to the english/french/spanish/italian.
June 1, 2010 at 4:25 pm |
Just to clarify, Jo is short for John, I’am a dude.
But thanks soooooooo much for considering my question 😀
June 1, 2010 at 3:25 pm |
Having been to China the whole language barrier between Cantonese and Mandarin is usually solved with there being two translations of things… of course that would also rely on you being able to read the symbols.
I suppose it’s all down to where you think you’ll end up going in China, with the majority of Cantonese speakings residing in Southern China. This is a small amount when you consider Mandarin to be spoken in much of the Northern and South-western parts of China, including Taiwan and Singapore.
If it was me, I would go with Mandarin. Also there are some similarities between each dialect, so I’m sure you’ll pick it up eventually.
Olly.