[CruisingDream]

Which one is should I learn and why.

Cantonese or Mandarin
Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese

[JHuJHu]

mandarin. Many more people use the language around the world. but i'm cantonese :P i like canto better then mando.

Simplified is easier.

[Alphamale]

Mando and traditional. That way you have a half decent chance on twangers.

[vancouveray]

neither. I heard chinese in general is the hardest language to learn for non chinese people

[CruisingDream]

neither. I heard chinese in general is the hardest language to learn for non chinese people

so just because the language is hard does that mean I should stop learning it? I think not at least I'm not like that.

[hi5-ive]

learn mandarin

[[RSX-S]]

I'd Say Mandarin because it's easier to learn and it's more widely used than Cantonese.

+1 for the twanger remark.

[E-40six]

Learn Mandarin, its more useful as the mainlanders are starting to get rich. That way you would be a better asset to a company that have customers from China.

also, simplified chinese, that shit is easier :p

[!Tigger]

learn french instead

[Volvo-brickster]

Mandarin.

Chinese is only useful in Hong Kong...rest of china speaks mandarin

[Amuse]

Mandarin and traditional
Mandarin is easier to learn than Cantonese

Btw, does anyone else think Taiwanese girls trying to speak Cantonese are cute?

[Eclypz]

Cantonese is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. There is no alphabet, and to make things worse, there are 6 tones to know. IMO, without an alphabet, it's pretty much memorization.

As for which language is more useful, I'd say Mandarin. Most good Cantonese speakers understand Mandarin anyways.

[Phatmobile]

Mandarin + Traditional Chinese = Taiwan
Mandarin + Simplified Chinese = China

IMO Mandarin + Simplified Chinese is more useful.

[alex.w *//]

mandarin

[CruisingDream]

Yea I'm banned.

[kwon]

mandarin

most hongers know mandarin

so twangers, hongers and mainlanders are all good....

[K-Dub]

Mandarin.

Chinese is only useful in Hong Kong...rest of china speaks mandarin
Chinese isn't a language. It's Cantonese or Mandarin!

+1 Cantonese, learn that first and it'll be easier to pick up Mandarin.
Funny I say this because I'm Taiwanese and so I speak Mandarin...but it's harder to learn Canto.

[4444]

neither, learn a language with some beauty... italian, spanish, french

madarin and cantonese have to be the most ugly languages known to man - even german's better, and that's NOT an attractive language

[Culture_Vulture]

Traditional Mandarin; more practical.

[LsquareD]

Yea I'm banned.

hahaha. Your status tricked 2 members so far :thumbsup:

[Culture_Vulture]

neither, learn a language with some beauty... italian, spanish, french

madarin and cantonese have to be the most ugly languages known to man - even german's better, and that's NOT an attractive language

That's stupid. And you've probably never seen any traditional Chinese literature and philosophy.

Linguistically speaking, no one language is superior or inferior to another.
Cultures and subcultures cause the evolution of a language, not the other way around.

That's like saying the electricity that's used to power my laptop is higher quality than the electricity you're using to power your PC.

[Carl Johnson]

neither, learn a language with some beauty... italian, spanish, french

madarin and cantonese have to be the most ugly languages known to man - even german's better, and that's NOT an attractive language

wth are you talking about lol, using words like beauty, ugly, and attractive to describe languages

[johny]

russian. they will take over north american in the future.

[way2quik]

Mandarin.
Cantonese for your everyday talk with parents and everyone else.

Traditional or simplified is up to you.
At school (high school and Chinese school), I learned simplified.
But reading newspaper and watching tv shows and such you may encounter a lot of traditional characters.

[Bonjour43MA]

Mandarin for sure.

[!SG]

mandarin. better for business.

[fetched]

Mandarin.

Chinese is only useful in Hong Kong...rest of china speaks mandarin

: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.

[unidentified]

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.

[cococly]

Mandarin and traditional
Mandarin is easier to learn than Cantonese

Btw, does anyone else think Taiwanese girls trying to speak Cantonese are cute?

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

[shenmecar]

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

[ah_cat]

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

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

[Culture_Vulture]

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
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

[turbos86]

Just learn everything! Problem solved.

[JHuJHu]

Mandarin.

Chinese is only useful in Hong Kong...rest of china speaks mandarin

chinese is mandarin and canto idiot.. lol

[JHuJHu]

also forgot . +1 for canto.

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

[SpuGen]

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

[cls55coupe]

mandarin .. ppl in hk will understand what ur sayin

[fetched]

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.

[Volvo-brickster]

chinese is mandarin and canto idiot.. lol

yea thats what a i meant:p

[Girl]

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.

[cspec]

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.

Agree!

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

[m4k4v4li]

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

[SkinnyPupp]

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.

[SkinnyPupp]

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.

[CruisingDream]

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.

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.

[cspec]

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Singapore is fine without Chinese.

[SkinnyPupp]

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.

[twitchyzero]

Neither.

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

[4444]

wth are you talking about lol, using words like beauty, ugly, and attractive to describe languages

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

[Snake Eyes]

Interesting this topic came up, cause my friend was asking?
Where is there a place in vancouver where you can learn cantonese? I have only seen places teach Mandarin.

[K-Dub]

Neither.

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

[Culture_Vulture]

Interesting this topic came up, cause my friend was asking?
Where is there a place in vancouver where you can learn cantonese? I have only seen places teach Mandarin.
interesting point.
I would like to know too lol.

[danned]

mandarin is easier than cantonese
so writing, simplified is easy then traditional

[ziggyx]

gew mor gwai fai di jow

Watch some cantonese and mandarin dramas, whichever one you take a liking to then learn it?

[ThisIs50.com]

lol at fetched get so offensive

LOL AT SPUGEN MAKING ME CRACK UP LOLZOZLZLLZZO

[Gachinto]

Mandarin is easier and more useful, end of story.
Cantonese is disgusting, I speak Canton.

[Grandmaster TSE]

learn both

[dogeatcookie]

SpuGen is so damn stupid he brings the LULZ to my life

[jpoon]

I know cantonese. I wish I have the time to learn Mandarin. You should learn Mandarin it's more useful than Canto imo. Easier too.

[super91]

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

LOL .. this is funny...
Twanger speak mandarin... We are not communist..
and cantonese is not an official language.. IT IS A SLANG..
ie Shanghainese is a slang..
taiwanese is a slang....
it is not a language .. you cant write that language...
you only can speak it....
and also ... HK news paper write in the format of mandarin
only cheap magazine write unofficial cantonese non-sense...

[Girl]

LOL .. this is funny...
Twanger speak mandarin... We are not communist..
and cantonese is not an official language.. IT IS A SLANG..
ie Shanghainese is a slang..
taiwanese is a slang....
it is not a language .. you cant write that language...
you only can speak it....
and also ... HK news paper write in the format of mandarin
only cheap magazine write unofficial cantonese non-sense...

Uh...when you say "slang," you're really trying to say dialect right?

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.

Most Singaporeans speak 2 or more languages. English and usually whatever they speak at home, usually Chinese (Mandarin or Canto), Malay or Tamil. You don't need anything but English if you're there.

mandarin with no accent ftw


What does that mean? Mandarin sounds different in every region, there's accents from Beijing, Malay, Guanzhou, Taiwanese, Taiwan, etc. Just like English, there's Liverpool accent, Canadian, New York, Southern accent.

It's because we are so use to listening to Taiwanese Mandarin which is a lot softer in tones that we're rather accustomed.

[SkinnyPupp]

The idiocy displayed in this thread is truly astounding, even by the low standards already set before it.

[t8v6]

if you wanna learn both, learn canto then mando, mando's a lot easier to learn if you know cantonese

if you wanna learn just one, learn mando, mando will be much more useful than canto

[willystyle]

For the record, Mainland Mandarin sounds like shit, I prefer the taiwanese accent over that any day of the week. It's far sexier.

[fetched]

^
Not on guys please, they sound way too feminine

[willystyle]

^
Not on guys please, they sound way too feminine
I was speaking of women

[urrh]

neither
both are ugly sounding languages
not being racist, i'm chinese

[Mice]

http://i43.tinypic.com/2dkn604.png

[HappyDorky]

mandarin
since, most chinese people understand mandarin
even the canto speakers ^^

[absolution]

Learn Cantonese ( make sure u get a teacher from HK cus China Cantonese sounds like shit too)
China Mandarin sounds like shit
Taiwan Mandarin is good

[DC5-S]

learn to speak blackinese

[SpuGen]

You guys make me laugh.

For the record, I barely speak Chinese. I can speak and understand Cantonese, but I can't read it. So by posting up random Chinese characters in an attempt to "school me" really failed. It's like telling a black guy he can't speak Swahili.

And also, for general purpose, Cantonese is better on a daily level in Vancouver/Richmond, and HK. More people speak Mandarin in Northern parts of China, and I know that for a fact. I got away with my CBC Cantonese in China perfectly fine. And EVERYBODY in HK speaks Cantonese, not Mandarin.

Fuck. I got my way around Toi Shan with my CBC Canto and my limited Toi Shan wah. And their dialect is fucked up.

I'm gonna agree with Skinnypup. Mandarin sounds like those Chinese Operas "Yuut Kook" which makes my ears bleed.

Really nice piece by the way.
zHPegoquV5I
CQrxOvEd5OE

LOL .. this is funny...
Twanger speak mandarin... We are not communist..

You're right. You're not communist, you guys just beat the shit out of each other when it comes to politics
1xCn3ZYTU0Y

[fetched]

Spugen,
"It's like telling a black guy he can't speak Swahili"
Totally wrong. I wasn't trying to school you, I thought if you were going to comment on the difference between people that spoke Mandarin and Cantonese, you'd at least know "Mandarin" and "Cantonese" in Chinese writing.
In this case, " It's like telling a Chinese guy he can't read Chinese", something is very wrong.

You've just told us in your post that you don't know shit about the your culture, Mr.CBC. So there's no point of explaining anything to you, I just hope you'd learn more about your heritage, that's all. And you are truly the master of the obvious by saying " EVERYBODY speaks cantonese in HK"
no shit.

[SpuGen]

Can all black guys read Swahili?
No.
Can All Chinese people read Chinese?
No.

I'm Canadian, and while I love my Chinese Culture and Heritage, Mandarin sounds like mutilating chickens.

Cantonese is far more useful for the average person. Travellers, random getting around town etc. Plus, Cantonese people have better food. All you guys have are Siu long baos and Gow Jee. Where are 80% of RS'ers who plan to Visit Asia go? HK. So therefore, my point is relevant.

Also, where in my post did I say that I didn't know shit about my Chinese background?
Nowhere.

[Blinky]

To answer the original question:

starting from zero, I'd learn Mandarin and Traditional. Mandarin is more useful in general, and once you learn traditional figuring out most simplified characters is a logical exercise.

My experience - I'm CBC, speak passable basic Canto and studied a bit of Mandarin, which has gone to pot of late... could read a few hundred characters at the height of my powahs.

Others:
- I understand that some linguists consider Mandarin and Cantonese different languages, rather than dialects of the same language. Something to do with the fact that they're mutually unintelligible. I'll let the academics figure it out.

- where to learn Cantonese? Vancouver Community College, UBC and I believe the VSB all offer continuing/adult education courses in Cantonese. You might also be able to go to a Saturday Chinese school with 7 yr old kiddies.

[mako]

Mandarin is easier to learn for english speakers
The ratio of 'gwai lows' learning mandarin to cantonese is like 10-1

I know a black guy who's fluent in Mandarin. He ended up marrying a Taiwanese girl and their kid is the cutest. Imagine: a mixed Black/Chinese girl who only speaks Mandarin and not a word of english

[EM2]

canto ftw

[silk]

mandarin, tradition and pinyin ..and u are good to go

[RFlush]

Mandarin is more useful to learn. Even if you go to HK, you can get by with mandarin due to all the mainlanders going to HK to shop.

Go to mainland, and anywhere outside Gaungdong province, you are going to need to speak Mandarin. Even inside Guangdong province there are a lot of cities that don't speak Cantonese and now with more people moving to Guangdoing from other provinces, some can't even speak cantonese! I was in Zhongsan and Jiangmen and came across a few people (workers such as those at banks) that can't speak Cantonese. I can't speak Mandarin so it was really tough to communicate with them =/

[laurencepak]

Mandarin is the official spoken and written language of China

Cantonese is only one of the many spoken dialects (there is not written cantonese...in writing it basically looks the same as mandarin, expcept the difference in traditaional/simplified letters and that they have slangs and stuff)

if you want to learn "Chinese" you probably want to learn Mandarin

"simplified" and "traditional" is really just an easier or more difficult way to write the same letters. but people using either one do not necessarily know how to read the other one..

Cantonese is really just a spoken dialect for a small area of China, just that this small area includes Hong Kong, which is an internationally renown city.

assuming you are western, i am not sure if you can even learn Cantonese from scratch?

because there is really no written form of words, (again its only a spoken dialect)
so i have no idea how can u learn it...u can only memorize the sounds of the sentence

maybe u can learn it sentence by sentece..like for example learn how to converse in cantonese..but this is definitely not the proper way to learn a language.

if you learn mandarin, you can learn to read and write and speak properly...just like any other language.

[E=mc²]

cantonese and mandarin can almost be considered separate languages since they are both mutually unintelligible.

and whoever said cantonese is a slang is a moron...wtf does that even mean...
and you can write cantonese...there are actually cantonese characters.

[hear-it-first]

I am sure people can learn speaking Chinese from scratch. Have you ever seen some TVB shows? There are french, british, punjabi, and other western actors speaking chinese almost fluenty.

[46_valentinor]

korean. so you can hit on the korean chicks
AHHH SARANGHEE!!! <3
instant chick magnet

[mako]

I am sure people can learn speaking Chinese from scratch. Have you ever seen some TVB shows? There are french, british, punjabi, and other western actors speaking chinese almost fluenty.

my friends white and his mandarins better than mine

he can read characters too

[Synaptik]

picking cantonese over mandarin is like learning ebonics over proper english. you're better off with the real thing.

cantonese sounds like crap too, like a bunch of ducks wailing.

[mako]

^
thats just something a mandarin person would say cause they're unable to understand

[misteranswer]

cantonese and mandarin can almost be considered separate languages since they are both mutually unintelligible.

and whoever said cantonese is a slang is a moron...wtf does that even mean...
and you can write cantonese...there are actually cantonese characters.

They mean that the spoken Cantonese language is mostly slang and "improper".

Compare how they speak on the news broadcast vs a television show.

[Synaptik]

^
thats just something a mandarin person would say cause they're unable to understand

12 years in shenzhen means i speak both.

just telling it as it is brah

[mako]

if you can speak cantonese, you cant say that you dont enjoy speaking it

[Synaptik]

i talk pretty black in real life too, but that doesnt mean id advise an esl student to do the same

[Momo251212]

umm... u should learn manderin if u want to travel. if u learn traditional u will learn more chinese traditional culture. but im canton and i think its fun to learn canton. all of these r ultra hard for people who havent live in china ever. canton is a bit harder, because... i think it has more ways to express a thing. but... there r soo many funny swear words in canton tho~~~ lol

good luck and enjoy:)

[mako]

but that doesnt mean id advise an esl student to do the same

thats true. mandarin is easier to learn than cantonese for sure. only 4 tones for mandarin. thats why many cantonese can also speak and understand mandarin but not the other way around.

[SpuGen]

YouTube- British Westerner speaking Fluent Cantonese and Mandarin

[mako]

^
wow
a white guy that can speak cantonese fluently is pretty impressive

[liukb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO1H0sJGcI0