one thing i'm surprised they didn't mention is how someone who speaks cantonese have a much easier time learning mandarin than the other way around. it's not exactly french and english as it was written in the article - more like standard english and say, someone with a really heavy regional accent. or someone from puerto rico speaking spanish to someone from spain. the general grammatical structure and even a lot of the vocabulary are the same, it's just used differently and/or new words and phrases were introduced.
although cantonese is full of slang (the WAAAAHHH! made me laugh out loud cuz it's so true) those of us who speak cantonese learn to read and write in standard chinese, which is how mandarin is spoken, so we can usually carry on basic conversation in mandarin, although our tones may be a bit off.
but because it's so colloquial, it's definitely more difficult for someone who speaks mandarin to learn cantonese. which probably also contributes to the "dying breed" comment (although i still hear it all the time during dim sum!).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-01-27 03:18 pm (UTC)although cantonese is full of slang (the WAAAAHHH! made me laugh out loud cuz it's so true) those of us who speak cantonese learn to read and write in standard chinese, which is how mandarin is spoken, so we can usually carry on basic conversation in mandarin, although our tones may be a bit off.
but because it's so colloquial, it's definitely more difficult for someone who speaks mandarin to learn cantonese. which probably also contributes to the "dying breed" comment (although i still hear it all the time during dim sum!).
jangrl