Learning Chinese Language as a White Person

[Euro7r]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

LOL six figures to eavesdrop on "Asian clients". Sounds like she's going to be doing a lot more than that if ya know what I mean...

Example would be, lets say he is trying to negotiate a contract and he offers $190,000 but client bottom line is $180,000. Well he ain't gonna know that if they chat amongst themselves in their own language.

[yray]

well maybe chick doesn't want to fly to china and waste whole day and night for business meetings

can't reject drinks in china during business

[ae101]

^
i can lol, i just tell them that im allergic to alcohol and then they would just say one or two drinks for face/respect

[fliptuner]

Originally Posted by danned

learning swearing words is a "MUST" and the "FIRST" thing to learn

Nah, first thing I learned was how to kao loi.

Ho leng loi. Ngo ho ley ok joy mm ho mm ho-ahh.

[JSALES]

When I wanted to try and learn Chinese, I downloaded an app called ChineseSkill. Don’t know how accurate it is but it seems helpful and fun with drawing characters and pronunciation from the basics.

[Obsideon]

I kinda just learned Chinese from watching TVB shows, so I totally can not write anything other than the basic 你, 我, a couple others and numbers 1 to 10, oh and I memorized my own name. I can read more than I can write based on recognizing the character shapes from singing kareoke haha but if you asked me to write it out I am clueless.

From my experience it is much easier for a Cantonese speaker to learn Mandarin compared to vice versa.
Conversational Cantonese is also very different from reading Cantonese as there's lots of slangs.

I can 95% understand what all my friends and family say to me in Canto but trying to understand the Cantonese news reporter on the radio is extremely difficult for me. They could be saying "Meteor about to strike western Canada tomorrow" and I would be like "oh I think they are saying something about fire"

When I tried to watch those older "gu zhong" kung fu shows, the way they talk; I had no idea wtf they were saying half the time. Might as well be watching Spanish.

[spoon.ek9]

Pretty cool to see all the different CBC experiences in learning Cantonese/Mandarin in here.

My story is similar, having been born and raised in Alberta. Didn't know anything past my own name and some select swear words thanks to Stephen Chow movies lol. Ding lei gor fie!

When I moved to Richmond, I was surrounded by hongers so I KNEW I had to learn this shit. Naturally, I started with all the bad stuff just so I would know when people were talking shit about me (or at me). It really got my interest going.

As the years have gone by through different experiences in martial arts, dating, tv/movies etc I am now fluent in the speaking parts of Cantonese. I have also taught myself to read menus so that I can at least recognize what I normally order. Because of this, I am able to travel around HK on my own without any problems. Being around Chinese speakers all the time definitely forces your mind to get used to it. I've even been able to get rid of most of my CBC accent.

In terms of usefulness, learning Mandarin is the way to go. But when it comes to fun factor and hilarious shit, Cantonese is king. The amount of things you cannot translate into English that is freaking funny is massive. As a native English speaker, I've always been told that my pronunciation in Mandarin is actually better than the Hongers. This is probably because they struggle with the sharper tones that we are so used to and are very common in Mandarin.

So OP, overall I'd say learn Mandarin if it's just for business/professional reasons but Cantonese is hella fun to learn and use on the daily. There's a lot more to tell but let's see where this thread goes.



Side note: who else had horrible/ridiculous experiences in Chinese school? lol

[yray]

I was in cantonese school at the same pace as my regular school. But my cousin wanted to do mandarin school so when I switch, I was grade 7 kid in a grade 1 mandarin class. Spent the rest of my time doing my regular school homework.

[Obsideon]

I went to Chinese school for many years after regular elementary school classes finished. I didn't learn squat. They give you those grid papers with a character on the top row then you just copy down each column. I basically drew it line by line cuz I figured that was the fastest way haha

[asian_XL]

you can't learn a language without speaking it every day.

My Philippine helper stayed in my place for 6 months, she's picking up the language quickly as my parents teach her new vocab everyday.

[AzNightmare]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

From my experience it is much easier for a Cantonese speaker to learn Mandarin compared to vice versa.

I also find many native Mandarin speakers can't pronounce Cantonese as well, but not vice versa.

Probably it has to do with the 9 tones vs 4 tones.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by AzNightmare

I also find many native Mandarin speakers can't pronounce Cantonese as well, but not vice versa.

Probably it has to do with the 9 tones vs 4 tones.

LOL~ The majority of older Cantonese speakers never formally learned to speak Mandarin. Most of those who "speaks" Mando did so by winging it long enough that they eventually learned to speak it well enough. Most of their pronounciation are probably still quite horrible. But since each region in China speaks Mandarin in a manner that is heavily influenced by their own original local languages / dialects, people learn to understand each other well enough to function.

On the other hand, the Chinese government is unofficially taking deliberate measures to smear and demonize regional languages other than Mandarin. To a large extent, the government is succeeding. People (esp those in the bigger cities) are taught to believe that speaking anything other than the proper "standard" Mandarin is uncivilized and crude. Schools generally forbid students to speak anything other than Mandarin anywhere on school grounds, even in regions where Mandarin is not the original local language (eg. Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc.) The result is -- whole generations of Mainland Chinese people don't know how to speak those regional languages (including Cantonese), and have little interest in learning / speaking it.

Quite a sad state of affairs and an extremely naive view, really.

[asian_XL]

Learn Taiwanese Mandarin please.

Twanger gf Mandarin = awww yooooh, shui ge nei hao

Mainlander gf Mandarin = (120 decibel) Nei Ma Jiao Nei ar! Kuai Guo Lai

[Badhobz]

Yeah they are killing regional dialects. Nobody speaks proper shanghainese anymore. All the kids in Shanghai speak Mandarin and it's annoying as fuck when I go home. Stupid cousins all speak this weird shanghainese that's mixed with half mandarin and Dollar bills.

Ni Hui lai le ?!? Ni Hao ma ? Ni you chen $$$$ ma ?!?

You can go fuck right off.

P.s. Xiao Long Bao is not a dinner dish. You weirdos who order that shit for dinner at shanghainese restaurants are basically ordering omlets for dinner.

[bcrdukes]

Ching chong ling long!

[yray]

omlets for dinner would be nice

[fliptuner]

No chin, mo hai diu

[ae101]

Originally Posted by Traum

LOL~ The majority of older Cantonese speakers never formally learned to speak Mandarin. Most of those who "speaks" Mando did so by winging it long enough that they eventually learned to speak it well enough. Most of their pronounciation are probably still quite horrible. But since each region in China speaks Mandarin in a manner that is heavily influenced by their own original local languages / dialects, people learn to understand each other well enough to function.

On the other hand, the Chinese government is unofficially taking deliberate measures to smear and demonize regional languages other than Mandarin. To a large extent, the government is succeeding. People (esp those in the bigger cities) are taught to believe that speaking anything other than the proper "standard" Mandarin is uncivilized and crude. Schools generally forbid students to speak anything other than Mandarin anywhere on school grounds, even in regions where Mandarin is not the original local language (eg. Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc.) The result is -- whole generations of Mainland Chinese people don't know how to speak those regional languages (including Cantonese), and have little interest in learning / speaking it.

Quite a sad state of affairs and an extremely naive view, really.

older gen？ some of my friends in their late 20s and early 30s in guangzhou already have an accent when they speak mandarin, its like those honger that mainlanders make fun of all the time lol

QI fan LI mei you?!

bu yong na MO kuai guo LOU?!

ni ZOU na li?!

ni GOU SI MO a?!

im like wtf thats a huge cantonese accent, did they not try to correct u when u young in school

[Traum]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

P.s. Xiao Long Bao is not a dinner dish. You weirdos who order that shit for dinner at shanghainese restaurants are basically ordering omlets for dinner.

Gotta admit I just had some for dinner at Top Shanghai Restaurant tonight...

Yeah they are killing regional dialects. Nobody speaks proper shanghainese anymore. All the kids in Shanghai speak Mandarin and it's annoying as fuck when I go home. Stupid cousins all speak this weird shanghainese that's mixed with half mandarin and Dollar bills.

On a more personal level, a really sad thing I find is how some kids are unable to communicate with their grandparents because the grandparents only speak the regional language, while the young kids only knows Mandarin. This actually happened to a Guangzhou girl I dated, where her little brother couldn't really interact with the grandmother because they can't understand each other.

[ae101]

^
ya thats kinda truth, i know quite a few ppl in guangzhou where their younger siblings cant even speak cantonese and their local cantonese speaking

[minoru_tanaka]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

When I tried to watch those older "gu zhong" kung fu shows, the way they talk; I had no idea wtf they were saying half the time. Might as well be watching Spanish.

I understand that better than the gangster dialogue

[Boostslut]

I'm a white guy, and totally sucked in school, sucked at french and sucked at learning in general! When I first started living with my then girlfriend in Australia I would learn Canto by talking with her mother over video chat. I would take notes on how to say it with notes written in English pronunciation. Got lots of practice with that. Then moved back to Canada and lived under her mom's roof for a while, and from hearing them talk, to watching canto tv, to ordering foods in restaurants, and having simple conversations about the same topic in canto at home or so. I used to be able to order food, say simple conversational things, count to whatever number 100+, and all that. Would be difficult to learn more and conversational canto because more tones and all that. Maybe i'm just getting older, and dumber but it doesn't ever get easy. And I don't live in that environment anymore so that might have something to do with that as well. Now i've forgotten almost everything.. and tried to learn some mando but that's pretty tricky also. Its cool when canto or mando people appreciate when I try to say something to them in their languages with my horrible laughable accent! I don't know where i'm going with this story..

..Good luck with your learning though!

[Hehe]

As a white guy, I'd be extra careful with mandarin.

Because once you're into it, you'd be using the N-word a lot.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by Hehe

You'd be using the N-word a lot.

Ni GERRRRR?!?!?!?!?!?

[fliptuner]

Nehh- gaaahhhhh