Madarin & Chinese?

Question

Which one is more useful?
Are they the same?

Answer 1

Hi, OP. I'v been living in China all my life and I believe my answer would be the best:)

Chinese is a language, just like English. It refers to a language as a whole. And Madarin is a dialect, an officially acknowledged dialect. And Madarin is now the dominant dialect spoken in China, either mainland or Taiwan. There're too many dialects in Chinese(thousands of them), almost each province speak a different dialect and in some southern provinces, people from two adjacent counties may have difficulty understanding each other, and there're HUGE differences between sounthern dialects and northen ones. Generally, northern dialects are similar and so are southern ones to each other. But since China is way too mountainous people always have difficulty understanding folks from neighboring province. So our governt adopted Madarin as our standard dialect.

Madarin is based on Beijing dialect but varies a little bit, more standardised. In China, Madarin is taught from 1st grade, everybody is supposed to speak it.

Cantonese is another dialect of Chinese. We all have same written language, but dialects vary greatly. To most Chinese, Cantonese sounds like a second language, pronounciations are totally different!!!

Native Taiwanese speak Minnanhua, another dialect, even harder than Cantonese. So in public most Taiwanese speak Madarin too.

Do I explain this question clearly? So Chinese is a language, it refers to both written and spoken language. And madarin is only a dialect of it. And if you wanna choose a dialect to learn, it has to be Madarin. Cuz most people speak that!

Answer 2

Mandarin is the official language promoted by the Peoples Republic of China. Chinese has many dialects (some commentators call them different languages) including Cantonese - spoken in Canton and the Hong Kong region.

Answer 3

Chinese is the all inclusive language in China which encompasses 2 forms of current writings, a dozen or so major spoken dialects and hundreds of minority dialects. Mandarin is the officially designated spoken dialect to represent the nation. If you are going to learn the language, start with Mandarin and the simplified writing. (The written forms are shared by all regardless of the dialect they speak.)

Answer 4

Mandarin is a standardized form of Chinese. It's the one that the government chose in order to standardize the language in China. Saying you speak Chinese is the same as saying you speak European....there are many many languages in China..Mandarin is the official one..also called putonghua (common peoples speach). Whether they are different languages or dialects...people cannot understand each other; without mandarin.

Answer 5

Hey Nancy

Mandarin and Cantonese are both Chinese but they are diferent dialects. Mandarin Chinese is spoken in all of China, as well as Taiwan and Singapore. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and in the South of China, and it does sound different but native speakers can usually understand both.
Also about 75% of the people in Hong Kong today can speak Mandarin too.