mandarin. better for business.

:haha: Chinese = Cantonese? :haha:

Should be like this: Cantonese is only useful in HK... Rest of China speaks Mandarin.
Chinese is a language while Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of the language, Mandarin is the most widely used form of Chinese, therefore it would make much more sense if it's Chinese = Mandarin, Cantonese = Cantonese.

For the most part, Mandarin is probably more practical. Plus, Cantonese speakers can usually at least partially understand Mandarin. I learned Traditional Chinese and it's been pretty easy for me to figure out Simplified so I say you're better off learning Traditional.

+1. It's not hard for you to learn Mando if you go to learn Cantonese first. It really depends on your purpose.

cantonese because its harder to speak than mandarin, if you mastered cantonese and decide u want to learn mandarin too couple years later, it would be easier =P

^ i had a tough time getting the tones right in mandarin :(

but i'd say go for mandarin, traditional!!

considering he already sounds like learning Chinese would be a second language,
and that he's definitely over his sensitive period,
I think just learning one of the two would be hard enough lol

Just learn everything! Problem solved.

chinese is mandarin and canto idiot.. lol

also forgot . +1 for canto.

Hong Kong is like the Newyork in asia. so canto ftw :D

Little known fact:
When Chinese people voted for the national language Mandarin VS Cantonese
Mandarin won by 2 votes.

It's cause those northerners fuck like rabbits

General rule of thumb:
Northerners speak Mandarin
Southern Chinese people speak Cantonese.

Mandarin sounds like:
"EE AR SHAN SHUU nii shu sha shor ar shee warRRRR Communism"

Cantonese sounds like:
"WAHH DIUUUUU. NGOR DIU LEI LO MO AHH. DIUU MO CHEEN AHHH. JOW LA"

Southern parts of China/ Hong Kong, Cantonese all the way
Northern parts that are all communist and cheap, Mandarin.
Richmond, Cantonese

mandarin .. ppl in hk will understand what ur sayin

Spugen
Are you serious?
Mandarin is 普通话,
Cantonese is 粤语, which is considered a slang, in the same category as 100+ other chinese dialects. That is why every city in China including HK has their own slangs but schools/businesses are taught/operated using Mandarin.
You don't know shit.

Give you a little fact, only people in HK speaks the Cantonese your talking about. Guangzhou speaks 广东话 which is different from 粤语, many people would assume they are the same but it's not.

And All of China is communist, doesn't matter north south west east.
Everything you've said is wrong, general rule of thumb? haha, just because every dialect has some similarities with each other doesn't mean their Cantonese boy.
Mandarin sounds better anyways =) proper mandarin that is.

yea thats what a i meant:p

Mandarin and Traditional.

If you go to China you find that depending on the location you are, a lot of places will mix both traditional and simplified now. Stick to traditional and it'll be easy to pick up simplified.

Agree!

But a lot of people in the Guangdong province are actually incorporating a lot of HK Cantonese slang into their culture.

mostly spot on ^
cantonese sounds 10x worse than mandarin, even cantonese speakers acknowledge that fact

when ppl speak cantonese it sounds like theyre arguing all the time
mandarin with no accent ftw

even tho prc runs under a communist tittle... china holds pretty large capitalist ideals and believes in a prosperous middle class

BTW, anyone who says "You must learn mandarin because China is so relevant" is bullshitting you. You ONLY need to learn mandarin if you work IN China, or directly WITH mainland China companies. Don't think that it will be beneficial to your job, unless you actually have had issues with communication before. English is the most important language to learn. After that, you need to decide what language is most beneficial, be it Thai, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, whatever.

Just because China is big business, doesn't mean it is your business.

And for the record, mainland mandarin sounds FAR worse than cantonese. It is one of the most annoying, grating languages to my ears (the worst being Korean). Cantonese can be 'loud' but at least it doesn't make you sound like a retard with all the "ARGH" and "SH" sounds.

True, I want to learn a bit of mandarin before departing to Singapore (co-op). I'm white 100% Canadian English immigrant 200 years ago.

Definitely "believes" in a prosperous middle class, the wealth distribution there is pretty ridiculous.

Very true, and to a large extent, if you go to Northern parts of China, they probably won't do business with you if you don't know Mandarin. And vice versa for Southern parts of China. Cantonese becomes increasingly important as you venture south within China.

Singapore is fine without Chinese.

And don't assume that everyone in HK knows mandarin just because it was handed over in 97. The level of mandarin here is slim to none, for the most part. Again, unless the person does business directly with mainland China people.

Neither.

learn Taiwanese and be a TW hillbilly and chew betel quid and mack on some JB with your red teeth.

easy, i cringe when i hear chinese ppl shout their disgusting sounds, whereas in europe, the sounds of chatter are a delight.

simple, really

there are pretty languages and ugly languages - asia got all the shite ones, europe got all the good ones and some bad too

mandarin in traditional .

if it seems way too hard than go to simplified. learn pin yin, even tho zhu yin is cool cause its TW but pin yin is a lot easier