If you are going to study a Chinese language you will typically have to ask yourself this question: Should I begin learning Mandarin or Cantonese?
Mandarin is the official language of China and is spoken throughout most of the country with the exception of the southern province of Guangzhou. Guangzhou typically favors Cantonese over Mandarin. So with that being said what are some reasons why you should learn one Chinese language over the other?
Well for starters, don’t kid yourself, for non native speakers both Mandarin and Cantonese are difficult languages to learn. However Mandarin uses 4-5 tones depending on who you ask and Cantonese uses 6-9 tones depending on who you ask. So of the two, Mandarin will most likely be the easier choice.
Tones aside here are a few more reasons why you should pick Mandarin over Cantonese. Almost everyone in China speaks Mandarin, Mandarin is the business language of China, the next generation is growing up with Mandarin, even in Hong Kong Mandarin is becoming king.
So almost everyone in China speaks Mandarin, well what does that mean? Currently 70% of the Chinese population speaks Mandarin. The other 30% is either Cantonese or irrelevant dialects. So who makes up these 70% of Mandarin speakers? It’s predominantly:
– Business people
– people with academic degrees
– just about all students for that matter
– anyone and everyone in the working class
– and anyone who has any type of formal education since the 1950’s
The Business language: Some people may argue that Cantonese is the money language because of the banking industry in Hong Kong. Among the locals, Cantonese is predominantly spoken in Hong Kong. However keep this in mind: When the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR government travels outside of Hong Kong to discuss business guess what language he speaks…exactly he ends up speaking Mandarin!
Also, don’t forget, many of the companies in the United States, and other developed countries, that outsource manufacturing jobs to China send those jobs to the mainland. The mainland, outside of Guangzhou, is almost exclusively Mandarin. So if you are looking to do any kind of international business with China or local business in China for that matter, learning Mandarin will give you the upper hand 99.9% of the time.
The next generation is learning Mandarin. The Chinese government is putting a larger emphasis on schools to teach Mandarin instead of Cantonese. Not to mention that all entertainment is in Mandarin. That means that these children are growing up watching and listening to Mandarin on TV and Radio as apposed to Cantonese. Even the stations in the Guangzhou province are scripted in Mandarin. When kids play outside and pretend to be superheros guess what language they use? Mandarin. So, because of this push by the government and multimedia, Cantonese will grow more and more obscure with time.
Slowly but surely Mandarin is making room for itself in Hong Kong. Not that many people in Hong Kong speak English except for expats, but if we’re just speaking about locals there is a safe bet English won’t get you very far. Most cab drivers and store clerks can’t help you if you speak English alone, but guess what? Speak a little bit of Mandarin and everyone is on the same page.
Need to renew your Visa or passport in Hong Kong? It’s not impossible without knowing Mandarin, and you may get by only speaking English, but remember you are here to learn Chinese. So what do you think will happen if you walk in speaking Mandarin? Surprise! Again, everyone will know exactly what you’re saying because they all speak Mandarin.
So what have we learned? If you want to learn Cantonese I say go for it or you can also read this post “Mandarin vs Cantonese Not Struggle For”, but after reading this post, my guess is that you will put more of your eggs in the “I will focus on my Mandarin” basket. Hopefully this post helped you make your decision. If you are still not convinced check out a few other posts on SexyMandarin. For example: 5 tips to learning to learning a new language.