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Is Mandarin worthless in Hong Kong?

 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages Post Reply
18 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4688 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 9 of 18
02 June 2012 at 7:41pm | IP Logged 
Ari? What's your take on this?
1 person has voted this message useful





newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
Joined 6138 days ago

1598 posts - 2174 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 10 of 18
03 June 2012 at 4:27am | IP Logged 
I just visited Hong Kong for the first time a few weeks ago. I was shocked how little Cantonese I heard. Of course, many people do speak it but there were sooo many Mandarin speakers. In fact, it made me wonder if it was worth learning Cantonese at all (as a visitor. If you live there, it is still worth while). And of course it is very easy to get by in English.
1 person has voted this message useful



hkboy
Groupie
Hong Kong
Joined 5435 days ago

65 posts - 86 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Cantonese, Mandarin

 
 Message 11 of 18
04 June 2012 at 8:25am | IP Logged 
It's an interesting discussion. When I first came to HK 10 years ago, they all told me not to learn Cantonese and that it was "useless". I studied Mandarin for a long time but then I realized I had no one to talk to. I married a local and it's been Cantonese since then. Most people still tell me not to bother with Cantonese and to learn Mandarin.

Yes, I agree, if you go down to Central, TST, etc. you hear a lot of Mandarin. I remember my wife saying "it's like a different world here". I live in the New Territories and actually I don't ever remember hearing any Mandarin being spoken here.   


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hkboy
Groupie
Hong Kong
Joined 5435 days ago

65 posts - 86 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Cantonese, Mandarin

 
 Message 12 of 18
04 June 2012 at 8:42am | IP Logged 
Let me qualify that by saying ...New Territories and not so close to China...haha.
1 person has voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4424 days ago

1185 posts - 1513 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 13 of 18
04 June 2012 at 6:43pm | IP Logged 
hkboy wrote:
It's an interesting discussion. When I first came to HK 10 years ago, they
all told me not to learn Cantonese and that it was "useless".


A friend at work is from Hong Kong and is a native Cantonese speaker. When the subject of
languages came up recently he said that Mandarin would be far more useful than Cantonese.
(He also suggested that Cantonese, with its 9 tones, would be somewhat harder than
mandarin, with 4).

1 person has voted this message useful



smallwhite
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 5067 days ago

537 posts - 1045 votes 
Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish

 
 Message 14 of 18
09 June 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged 


Census - Usual Language

2011
89.5% Cantonese
04.0% Other Chinese Dialects
03.5% English
01.4% Putonghua

Among "Other Chinese Dialects", we have more Hakka 客家 and Chiuzhou 潮洲 speakers than Mandarin speakers.

I have people speaking Mandarin to me about once or twice a year, mostly tourists.
6 persons have voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4688 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 15 of 18
10 June 2012 at 4:26pm | IP Logged 
smallwhite wrote:


Census - Usual Language

2011
89.5% Cantonese
04.0% Other Chinese Dialects
03.5% English
01.4% Putonghua

Among "Other Chinese Dialects", we have more Hakka 客家 and Chiuzhou 潮洲 speakers than Mandarin
speakers.

I have people speaking Mandarin to me about once or twice a year, mostly tourists.


As always, it's great to hear from native speakers.   Glad to see you back on board.
1 person has voted this message useful



Gorgoll2
Senior Member
Brazil
veritassword.blogspo
Joined 4905 days ago

159 posts - 192 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*

 
 Message 16 of 18
21 June 2012 at 2:09am | IP Logged 
While I don´t know about Hong Kong, my friends from Macau told me every language is
understood there. My main Macaense friend is bilingual in Cantonense and Portuguese,
and learned English, Mandarin and Japanese - It´s used by tourists - still in
childhood.


Census From   
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau

Cantonense: 85.7%
Other Chinese languages 6.7%
Portuguese 0.6%
Mandarin 3.2%
 English 1.5%
Others 2.3%


1 person has voted this message useful



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