If you want to learn Chinese, is it better to learn Mandarin or Cantonese first?

Answer 1

Mandarin is the national language of China, and learning this first will give you a great advantage. However, if you are planning to be in Hong Kong or in Guangdong (south province of China) more, then Cantonese is better. Friends that speak both have told me that Cantonese is a little harder to learn. Cantonese also seems to be the traditional languages of a Chinatown, but it is moving more and more to Mandarin.
One thing that you want to do when learning Mandarin is to get a good accent. If you study the Beijing accent, everyone in China will be able to understand you (you just may not be able to understand them - especially if they insert words from their local dialect, which they often do!)
Myself, I have been studing Mandarin, and I probably will not study Cantonese. .

Answer 2

It's easier to learn Mandarin because Cantonese is a slang version of Chinese. Like other people said, Mandarin is a more widely use language in the world. People who speak Cantonese usually understand Mandarin, just like me.

Answer 3

About 90% of people who speak any form of Chinese, speak Mandarin, also known as Beijing Dialect or Han Dialect. Cantonese accounts for about 6% and the remainder is made up of local dialects. The interesting thing is that the written language of characters is the same between the two.

Answer 4

Well, first, you ought to comprehend that Mandarin and Cantonese don't seem to be the identical spoken language! And there are a dozen different Chinese spoken languages. But they're the entire identical written language (besides Tibetan - is Tibet quite China??). Mandarin is the only to move for. You will uncover that a high-quality many men and women of Chinese descent have come from Hong Kong, in which Cantonese is spoken, and so they can not talk Mandarin. However, the Chinese specialists are looking to standardise the country wide language as Mandarin. Mandarin is the educating language for the duration of China. Even the Tibetan language is being suppressed in favour of Mandarin. China WILL emerge as the foremost SuperPower of planet Earth. And quickly!! And do not ever make the error of pondering that China is a Communist nation!!! It is far more Capitalist than USA!!! (good enough - the ruling social gathering has the identify "communist" however society operates as a non-socialist capitalism) However, the Chinese appear to be aiming for a populace literacy in American (typically miscalled "English!") And that's taught in all colleges - even most important colleges or even Tibet! So despite the fact that China WILL emerge as THE SuperPower, they'll opt for to make use of use American as their language of alternative. The written Chinese language does now not lend itself to keyboard use and Pinyin (English-style letters used to spell Mandarin phrases) is primary for keyboard/pc paintings. Chinese desktops have program to transform Pinyin to Chinese characters - all a little bit bulky) So there's a probability that Pinyin will emerge as the World language. The Chinese spoken languages use voice inflections to difference the that means! So that may be a quandary for English audio system. In English, inflection could difference the emphasis - however does not difference the that means. I viist China commonly and I can now learn a quantity of Chinese characters - however I can write so much fewer. Chinese characters are quite handy to comprehend - however now not so handy to write down. So - my opinion? Learn Pinyin! That will assist you to talk mandarin really effortlessly. And possibly THE language of the longer term.

Answer 5

Definitely Mandarin as it's the official Chinese language and it can be both written and spoken. Cantonese is only a dialect just like other Chinese dialects eg. Hakka, Hainanese, Hokkien, etc....
In the business world, usually knowledge of Mandarin is a necessity.

Answer 6

Mandarin is the official Chinese language, Cantonese is one of the many Chinese dialects spoken by people at the southern part of China. But then it would depend on which dialect your boy friend or girl friend speaks.

Answer 7

Unless you want to learn to get around in Hong Kong or order dim sum---for which Cantonese is best---you're best off learning Mandarin, which is far more commonly used.

Answer 8

If you want to find out Mandarin but you have no clue exactly where to start then a course for Mandarin is the best on the internet course for the beginners simply because it genuinely begins with the basis.

Answer 9

I think it's better to learn Mandarin first.

Answer 10

Mandarin is the most widely spoken so it makes sense to learn this one first