Mandarin Overtaking Cantonese

January 3, 2006

I've struggled to keep and learn enough Cantonese just to be able to communicate with my mom. I hope Cantonese doesn't disappear. As the article says, it is much more colorful. I would like to learn Mandarin, though.

Contributor: 

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.

Comments

Comments

I have been to China but all are very difficult to learn not to talk of the characters.....lol1.ni hao? -how are you?2.wo jiao -my name is..3.wo ai ni -I love you4.mei yuan -US Dollars
Ney hai my gouw choi, aah?!
I can't speak for anywhere but Vancouver, but I know in the universities there only Mandarin is taught. For kids in Cantonese-speaking households it was either pick it up from your parents, study in HK after graduation, or learn Mandarin so you could at least write the language.I also noticed an attitude from a lot of my non-HK friends about Cantonese being a "dirty" or "lesser" language.
It's not lesser. It's just louder. A whole lot louder.
AAAYYAAA!!!
Isn't this old news?It seemed to be the predominant dialect ever the late 80's, at least in the South Bay.In any case, Cantonese is the better dialect. It's better for loud, obnoxious conversations. =D
I do like mandarin oranges, never had the cantonese version yet.
Its like beer, mandarin=fancy stella artois... cantonese=budweiser
or canto=PBR