Cantonese: Difference between revisions
From Cibernética Americana
Jump to navigationJump to search
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
I am not a native speaker of any spoken Chinese dialect but | I am not a native speaker of any spoken Chinese dialect but wished to understand public media and have an ability to speak | ||
comparable to my English fluency. I | comparable to my English fluency. I had chosen Cantonese over Mandarin for this purpose for three reasons. First I understand | ||
Cantonese to be closer to the spoken language of the classics and secondly that it is the lingua franca of the overseas Chinese. Finally it is the dialect common in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as well as the native tongue of my friend Joe Shen. | Cantonese to be closer to the spoken language of the classics and secondly that it is the lingua franca of the overseas Chinese. Finally it is the dialect common in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as well as the native tongue of my friend Joe Shen. Ultimately however, simplified putonghua, is the reasonable choice. | ||
<br><br> The first of these reasons should and is reported to in fact make it the case that Cantonese speakers understand Mandarin with much greater ease than the reverse. We shall see, but in my case the point is somewhat moot: | <br><br> The first of these reasons should and is reported to in fact make it the case that Cantonese speakers understand Mandarin with much greater ease than the reverse. We shall see, but in my case the point is somewhat moot: | ||
