Chinese

[Black Ranger RX]

Okay, I've been learning Japanese for about 3 - ish years or so, wanted to join a German class but it got cancelled because not enough people joined the class..

So, I'm thinking about taking a Chinese class. There are 2 types of Chinese, Mandarin (which they use in China) and Cantonese (which they use in Hong Kong), and this Chinese class I'm going to take will be a Mandarin class..

So I'm thinking about watching some Chinese TVShows and/or movie, and listening to some Chinese pop music too. I thought this could get me into Chinese more as Tokusatsu, Anime, JPop, etc helped me get me into Japanese more.

Thing is, some are in Cantonese and some are in Mandarin..

And I was wondering, how different are Mandarin and Cantonese? Are they like 2 completely different languages except they're both Chinese languages or something?

Oh, and has anybody got any Chinese movies they want to reccomend me?

 

[.desk]

i only know mandarin. and from what i understand, the characters are completely the same, its just the pronunciation of each character that differs greatly. its just that theyre both dialects of the chinese language. it is more preferable that you take up mandarin because as of right now that is the most widely used dialect.

if you really wanna pick up mandarin quick i suggest picking up mandarin copies of manga but that might prove difficult depending on where you live. those have worked the best for me.

movies and songs i wont recommend just at a beginners level simply because its really hard to understand what theyre talking about. but andy laus movies are always the best. Tian Xia Wu Zei (World Without Thieves) and Tong Meng Qi Yuan (Wait Til' You're Older) are the more recent ones ive seen. the 2nd i recommend highly. and of course there are always the martial arts movies like Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House Of Flying Daggers...jackie chan movies and chow yun fat movies, though i think his movies are in canto.

 

[Bolt]

If I had the choice to learn one it would be Cantonese; Chinese (depending on who's speaking it, granted) can either sound beautiful or disgusting but I've found that it's usually the latter to me. Too bad the only way to really learn Cantonese is to live in Hong Kong or one of the smaller island cities.

 

[Black Ranger RX]

i only know mandarin. and from what i understand, the characters are completely the same, its just the pronunciation of each character that differs greatly. its just that theyre both dialects of the chinese language. it is more preferable that you take up mandarin because as of right now that is the most widely used dialect.

So, what about words?

For example "Nihao" is Chinese for "Hello" and "Xie Xie" is Chinese for "Thank you", are they said differently in Cantonese?

 

[DeathWished]

So, what about words?

For example "Nihao" is Chinese for "Hello" and "Xie Xie" is Chinese for "Thank you", are they said differently in Cantonese?

Yes they say it differently in canto, as I'm a canto but also kinda speaks mando.

so like mando's "Nihao" will be something like "Lay Ho" in canto.

and canto is a bit more difficult to learn than mando, since mando's writing and talking are bascially the same thing, where canto's "talking" style is a bit different from "writing" style. It's just like... you will never wrote "how yo' doin' ma' bratha' from' anotha' matha" on a poem.

its complicated ok? too hard to explain. (i used to live in hong kong btw )

 

[Doggy Kruger]

My friend speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese but he prefers Mandarin over Cantonese.

I don't know too much about Chinese language but if I had a choice, I'd go with Cantonese just because Bruce Lee spoke it :laugh:

 

[.desk]

ok i was wrong about canto and mandarin sounding different. they actually sound very similar. just that canto pronunciations of the word is more... hmm i dont really know how to describe... it has a lot more 'u' sounding words lol.

 

[wyyc]

I'm Chinese, and I prefer Mandarin. Most Chinese people nowadays know Mandarin, while far fewer know Cantonese, so for practical purposes, learn Mandarin.

Cantonese and Mandarin sound different. "Hao" which means good in Mandarin becomes "Hou" in Cantonese. "Hou" in Mandarin means monkey, so to the uninitiated (like me), going to Hong Kong made me misunderstand MANY things (very comically though).

Like most replies here have said, all these variations of the language are just dialects. The written words used are the same, but different dialects pronounce the words differently. That's all. And alot of the dialects are obscure anyway, because most Mainland Chinese who speak a dialect also know Mandarin. So by learning Mandarin, you can communicate with most Chinese, except some villagers in rural China or Hong Kong Chinese who still have Cantonese as their first language and never made the effort to learn Chinese.

And since you've learnt Japanese, you should find Chinese easier. The words are simplified versions of many Japanese Kanji, and the meanings tend to be similar.

 

[Jacky392000]

As a Malaysian Chinese, I certainly prefer Cantonese because most of the people here in Kuala Lumpur speaks Cantonese. I've stopped learning Mandarin in school since 2005.