2007-01-01 08:39:01 · 20 answers · asked by you-know-who 1 in Travel ➔ Asia Pacific ➔ China
I speak both - and 3 other dialects
Mandarin is the official langauge and is spoken mainly in Beijing, and Taiwan. The written form is slightly different for both. China uses the simplified chinese form whereas Taiwan uses the traditional chinese form.
Cantonese is a dialect and is spoken mainly in Hong Kong.
2007-01-01 08:51:25 · answer #1 · answered by WildRice 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
both, but sometimes you can't understand people from other provinces, though i m a chinese(hk), coz they got different accents, like people from beijing always speak with their touges rolled up,and i think the taiwan people make you feel uncomfortable, coz some of the pronunciations are different and the mandarin you learnt at school isn't like them, and cantonese is also somehow like this, and both languages keep changing coz many new phrases ar newly invented.
i m a native speaker of cantonese and some of the words can't be written, like some of the new words(thy are kinda like slangs or sth) " /he/ "(not he) means wasting time doing nothing, and " /geg/ " means stupid joke.
2007-01-01 22:11:32 · answer #2 · answered by joey_c 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My two daughters speak Mandarin, but their dialect is so strong, many Mandarin speakers don't understand them. I walk around with my phonetic Mandarin dictionary trying to figure out what my toddlers are saying.
2007-01-01 09:05:35 · answer #3 · answered by ihave5katz 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I speak just enough Mandarin to get a laugh out of the local Chinese folks, lol!
My Vietnamese is slightly better.
2007-01-01 21:19:17 · answer #4 · answered by Jadalina 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
cantonese and a bit of mandarin
2007-01-02 13:29:25 · answer #5 · answered by Lynn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Agreed joey_c! I'm from HK too. So, actually we have to learn Mandarin at school, so yes I do. But most slangs can be written, but I think tose words are made up but widely accepted already.
2007-01-02 07:13:05 · answer #6 · answered by Mysterious 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Both. It's actually no big deal as many speaks 3-4 dialects.
On the other hand , the Swiss are even more advantaged as they grow up in a tri/quad lingual enviroment.
2007-01-01 11:03:32 · answer #7 · answered by minijumbofly 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I speak cantonese.
I know a bit of mandarin.
I can write and read chinese?
xD
But aside from that.. English and French. And a bit of Korean.
2007-01-02 10:56:49 · answer #8 · answered by .FunkyFresh. 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mainly mandirin and a lil bit of cantonese. [[my mom's from guangzhou and my dad's from dalian, a city in the northeast part of china.]] though i prefer to speak mandirin. XD
2007-01-02 10:31:19 · answer #9 · answered by ~Z. 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yea a bit of Mandarin.
2007-01-01 10:58:21 · answer #10 · answered by Deeko 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋