Mandarin Speakers vs Cantonese Speakers?

Question

In China, do Mandarin speakers look down on Cantonese speakers, or feel superior to them? Do Cantonese speakers look down on Mandarin speakers and feel superior to them? How do they deal with one another?

Please only speak of those in China, not Chinese-Americans.

Answer 1

Cantonese is only popular in the southern regions while mandarin is the official verbal dialect through out the entire country.
In the past, many of the Hong Kong residents may frown upon the mainlanders and see them as uneducated, uncivilized farmers. But nowadys, many of the mainlanders are frowning upon the HK residents and see them as snobbish, untalented, spoiled brats.
But in general, there is no real animosity between those that speak cantonese vs mandarin.

Answer 2

The syntax, grammar are exactly the same. I would compare the 2 to Italian and Spanish, very similar to each other. If a Mandarin speaker moves to live in a place where every one speaks Cantonese, the person would be able to understand the basic Cantonese in about 3-6 months, and can have a daily conversation in about a year if he studies the dialect.

Answer 3

My mother tongue is Cantonese, because of work, I need to travel to Beijing, Shanghai and some other cities in China, meeting with a lot of mainland Chinese and I speak Mandarin too, at work, I never had any feeling of being looked down from the others as a Cantonese or an "outsider".

When I'm too tired, I would loose my mind, Mandarin just no more exist.. then.. lol.. I'd mix up my sentense in Mandarin + English + Cantonese or even with one or two Japanese words like a "stir fried assorted vegetables", usually I would stop myself when I just voiced out half of it as soon as I saw the reactions of the listeners then I laugh at myself, cool my mind a bit and re-construct my sentense / lines properly again! Perhaps.. there were someones looked down on me while I didn't notice!

May be I'm just lucky!

- 難得糊塗（鄭板橋的名句）(will translate it in English when I'm in the mood and found right words / expression.. sorry!)

In Chinese we have an idiom

四海之內皆兄弟也！

means "People from everywhere are brothers!"

We all should learn to be nice to each other and be openminded especially being a citizen of a big country like China which has the biggest population, imagine, how terrible it would be when these 1.3 billions all laugh at each other for some nonsense point of views? Then.. they argue and look down on each other? yell at each other?

P.S.

I myself never look down on the mainland Chinese (I have close relatives live in Guangzhou and Jiangmen & we have gatherings 2 to 4 times at least a year) nor the Mandarin speakers, indeed I quite envy those who speak very good / fluent / beautiful Mandarin, especially those foreigners who speak excellent Putonghua like native Chinese, I met a few in Beijing & Shanghai! Extremely impressive and made me shy to speak to them in Putonghua, I spoke English to them!!!!!

I learned Mandarin from some Taiwanese flatmates when I lived in Tokyo, I can't speak prefect Putonghua, some mainlanders told me that I had Taiwanese accent! (Shame on me!) But I still do not feel that should be considered as a "look down on me" sign!

Answer 4

Being may be the capital of China and also its political, economic, and social middle and you've the opportunity to notice it today, search with hotelbye . Beijing is one of the very visited towns in the world. Annually, an incredible number of visitors come to Beijing to see the great mixture of old and new. Beijing is just a town for all seasons. You are able to always discover something for you personally no matter what time you're in Beijing and whatsoever your passions are. It does take time to savor anything that Beijing City is offering but certainly you cannot lose the chance to see Tiananmen Square. Located in the center of Beijing, Tiananmen Square is your website for massive parades and rallies and the biggest square of this sort in the world.

Answer 5

There are other dialect besides these two you know. (it's just there are more Cantonese speakers in the US) And it's not like we are having a cultural war or something.

Answer 6

nono..
they dont look down because cantonese are mainly spoken in the south; mandarin is the official language for the whole country..

so..
anyway, hong kong people speaks cantonese..
some mandarin speakers cant speak cantonese but they can understand cantonese,
cantonese speakers are also in the reverse way (some)

Answer 7

Many Chinese believe that you were born to speak both dialects you are lucky. Cantonese speakers have chance to learn Mandarin because their accent won't be affected by Cantonese. But Mandarin speakers unfortunately have no chance of learning Cantonese because their accents can not improve and they don't speak very fluently.

I agree that Mados (Mandarin speakers) do look down on Cantos (Cantonese speakers) because they feel jealous that they cannot speak two famous Chinese dialects in china.

Many Mandos feel that if they can master Cantonese, they will feel like a first class. Hong Kong was used to be ruled by the British and manners were learnt there.

Answer 8

Yes i think that mando speakers feel superior. Mando is the original language of china. Cantonese is like the dialect of the south. So mando speakers look down on canto.. Cantos dont really do much about it.

Answer 9

crazy!!!!!

Answer 10

no!