umm.. well.. i can can is speak english and canto FLUENTLY and im not white washed.... i can read Eng. but not chinese... Well.. the problem is ... my parents are forcing me to learn Mandarin and read... of course.. i love to try and read it... but Mandarin is somewhat harder.... i dont want to learn to speak mandarin... but my parents are forcing me to.. because they believe in the near future Canto will be overruled by Canto... (I sorta believe this because Mandarin is the real Native language....) So what do u think? DONT FLAME PLZ! PERSONAL OPINIONS! ~Shinobi is kewl btw-rockon
the canto ship is sailing away -boat ..... thats my opinion, lol... wud be useful to learn some mando... whether u like it or not
Mandarin is the "offical language" not the native language. if anything, Cantonese is a older and more adaptive language than Mandarin. ( if there is a time machine, you will found that olden spoken Chinese dialect is closer to Cantonese than it is to Mandarin.) Mandarin is forced upon the people by the current government in China. One can go anywhere in the world with Cantonese, and you will be probably understand by some Chinese person outside China[ some say thats because Cantonese immigrants, but most Mandarin speakers outside China also learn to speak Cantonese.]. in short it aint going away, man, no way. there is, like 200million+ Cantonese speakers.
Mandarin is becoming the norm all around. It's not just the language that is changing. Place like HK and TW have started using the Simplified Chinese form instead of the Traditional writing. Cantonese will always be there, but over time, it'll phase out slowly (a slow death)
Mandarin is the the official language, as countryboy said. I doubt Cantonese will cease to exist, but its popularity may wane as all parents prefer their children to learn Mandarin instead of Cantonese (for obvious reasons) However, I am not in the clan of Chinese (the language) in general being the next English (the language). The downfall of French (the language) giving way to English (the language) is obvious but as Chinese is just a difficult language to learn and with such array of dialects existing, I doubt it will become the next "universal" language. There is no doubt, though, of its influence in the years to come. It will always be advantageous to learn another popular language, but Chinese will have a long way to go to be THE ONE LANGUAGE.
Well I don't think canto will just disappear, places like Hong Kong will always remain canto imo. And most ABC, CBC's, etc. still only know cantonese.
i know how to speak cantonese but not read or write...but in the process of learning...i dont think cantonese will cease even though with mandarin is the dominate language....cuz if you go to north america, europe, and other countries beside asia...cantonese is the dominate not mandarin... mandarin is only hot in mainland, taiwan, singapore, etc.....but then there is hongkong which mainly speak cantonese since 4ever...so dont worry
Well Cantonese will still be around while we're alive so nothing for any of us to worry about. But here in London there were mainly Cantonese speakers and you'd never hear any Manderin but thats changing now. Now you hear more and more manderin
lol canto is startin to fade and mandarin is going to last (tho i speak canto and want to learn mandarin) - i mean ppl other than chinese are learning mandarin (like white etc.) but i gues mandarin is easier to pronounce than canto
as long as HK people speak cantonese its all good i only speak canto with my parents and in HK and i doubt that cantonese will fade away in HK... at least i hope! my parents also telling me to learn mandarin.. but w00t im 18 so my own choice im not really intrested in mandarin.. such a weird language
im learning mando right now and it is def harder than canto... i feel like canto is more colloquial... correct me if im wrong about that. but lol, canto will def not die out. more ppl are learning mando because it's more valued since ppl wanna do business with china nowadays and also, canto is very difficult to learn. we have so many tones, while mando only has 4.
aww i understand how you feel. i come from a cantonese speaking family, and yeah, my mom is insisting that we (siblings) learn how to read/write/and speak mandarin because china's becoming more and more powerful. but secret is... watching hong kong and taiwanese dramas really do help in learning how to read/and speak mandarin.
Learning Mandarin will be a great advantage, learning to read chinese even better. Good for getting jobs, doing business, etc If youve got an interest go for it, but if you honestly dont want to, just say no
I work in a Chinese community and over the years, more Mandarin people are here. It's not a language I really want to learn, but it is a language we have to learn especially if you plan on working in a Chinese community. It's sad to see this, but like some said, places like HK where classes are still in Canto (for now).. I don't think Cantonese will cease. It's just the same with that debate recently about changing everything from traditional Chinese to simplified because simplified is the "traditonal" way of writing it. Idk about you guys, but I still see HK as its own country.. so China is really trying to take over HK entirely.. ><;;
Yeah I agree Mandarin is gonna overtake Cantonese one of these days. Also wondering if Spanish will overtake English too.
dude cantOnese sigh anyways, yeah, i'm sad it is getting faded out but wanna know what if it wasn't for all us 2nd generations and immigrated away i think cantonese would have died much sooner becuase all these cantonese speakers have flooded all around the world look at the english language and all those chinese veggies, they all use the cantonese pronouciation i think we should be thankful that someone we may have helped push back the death of cantonese a bunch also i bet if HK was still under british rules and kept such a economic influence on the world this death of cantonese would not be happening either