Cantonese you prolly should learn mandarin cuz they all speak it now, but in HK its still cantonese thats spoken most often
You should Min Nan dialect , that way you will understand if people talk crap on you because they don't expect you to understand it.
You can also learn Miao if you are going to the western part, uygur if you want to go to the north west automonous province, Tibetan if you want to go Tibet, Mongol if you feel like to trace the ancestry of the Mongols.. and so on.
definately mandarin, this is because the majority of chinese ppl know mandarin, it's a must for any chinese ppl who don't have mandarin as a first language/ mother tongue. Altho it is still Chinese, the fact is that ppl in China itself all speak mandarin (they may have their own regional dialects but everyone will kno mandarin), in hk everyone speaks cantonese but most of them will kno mandarin as well (as they have to learn it in school) and in Taiwan ppl speak standard mandarin as well. So really mandarin is recommended to learn first, if later you are more interested in the regional dialects you can then learn them, most Chinese ppl you meet first will speak to u in mandarin (esp if they don't kno where you are from) i get this and it's really annoying not being able to reply since i don't speak mandarin well at all, i can understand but i've only ever spoken in canto to my family and friends so yeah.hope this helped and i didn't go on too much!
Though its more beneficial to learn mando since it is used much more then canto... I say learn canto if you can.. just for the simple fact if nothing else, to keep it alive before it dies out lol.. though that is a bit far fetched.
i would recommend you to learn mando cuz canto is much harder to learn for beginner and plus mando is the common language in china.
took the words straight from my mouth. Wholeheartedly agree with this one. Mandarin has less tones so its a better starting point. I think after you've learnt Mandarin and you want to learn Canto, then it would probably be easier
Well i think that mandarin is more useful because more people know that language. Cause for me i speak cantonese but then i want to learn mandarin becuase it is more of an international language.
I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin and can read and write traditional chinese. I like traditional chinese writings more because it looks nicer.
I am a cantonese speaker, and I think learning Mandarin would be the better idea since it is an international language, and for that reason I'm sure that knowing Mandarin will be more helpful.
I can speak the language..but i cant read or write..i hate it wen u go into a restaurant and u dont understand the menu
I speak Cantonese fluently and have attended schooling for Mandarin-so I know basic ? But, I'd suggest Mandarin first because much more know that language and I also feel that mandarin is a much more beautifully designed language .
It's easier for foreigners to start by learning Mandarin first because the phonetics is closer to English than that of Cantonese. Plus, if you are going to visit China, Cantonese won't help you much outside of GuangZhou.
Start going to Karaoke and learn the words to your favorite songs.... That's how I learnt how to read and write Chinese.
just learn mandarin you will be able to communicate with more people in china. all provinces in china have people speak mandarin. however not everyone know cantonese. cantonese are the most spoken in hong kong and guandong
