

When my family and I talk in Chinese, we refer to all Hispanics as Mexicans. That’s what I was taught. Is there a word for "Hispanics"?
What word/phrases do you use to refer Hispanic people in Chinese(Mandarin or Cantonese)?

I am taking Chinese 3 in 9th Grade this year and I heard that they mostly speak Chinese (Mandarin) in class. Unfortunately, I grew up speaking Cantonese and I learned Mandarin later so I only know about half of what other people know.

You can’t SPEAK Chinese. Chinese is an ethnicity. However we CAN speak Mandarin or Cantonese, etc.

I’m half French and half Chinese and I just want to blow up at people who ask that because it is very frustrating.
It’s not called overreacting. Believe me, you would feel this way as well if you were Chinese. Even if I’m only half Chinese, I feel very irritated. I guess you have to Chinese to understand, or to be in a similar situation to understand.
I meant, I guess you have to be Chinese to understand.
Of course I very well know there are many more dialects than just Mandarin and Cantonese, hence the fact I put down ‘ect.’. Mandarin is the main language of Chinese people.

are there any cantonese pronunciation tools online?

does anyone know where i can find an online tool that can translate chinese characters and have it pronounce in cantonese rather than mandarin? paid websites are helpful if anyone knows either..thanks

Can you translate this Mandarin pinyin to English?

"Wo hao jiu lai na gai dao"
Is it something about arriving early? I only speak cantonese really.

should i learn mandarin or cantonese?

i am just a 14 year old boy who lives in florida and i would just like to learn another language everybody seems to learn spanish and my mom is trying to force me to take it but im just not into it so should i learn mandarin or cantonese i have no other reason in wanting to learn another language except for me being interested in it and my 1st language is english

once upon a time in china movie questions?

Ok i’ve been wondering this question for a long time does jet li speak Mandarin or Cantonese in Once upon a time in china 1,2 and 3? Oh and in once upon a time and America. Also when i watch it i change the Audio when it goes to the first one is that like the real language he’s speaking.

Is Korean Hard to Learn To speak?

I am half Chinese and Half Irish. I speak Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese,MinNanese, Understand a little Japanese because i watch Anime and i Learn to speak English when i was 11. Now i’m 14 and can talk with English with no accent and actually super good at it(Able to do Multiple Accent including British, Irish, American) Now my question is will i be able to learn Korean with no difficulty or will it be too hard and not worth investing my time in? Thank you very much.

I currently attend a huge university, one of the biggest in the US, and roughly 15% of our students are international students, most from East Asia, the majority of whom are Chinese international students who usually are there for a semester/year. While I am American born-n-raised Asian, something I’m not going to boast about because there are indeed negatives of being a minority, I did learn a lot of East/Southeast Asian culture from travelling there almost ever damn summer lol and can identify East/Southeast Asian language pretty well when it is spoken so I’d venture to say roughly 70% of international Asians at this school are Han Chinese, most speak Mandarin and not Cantonese. From experience the the majority of the rest are South Korean and then Japanese/Southeast Asians share an even share.

There is a Chinese chick in my class who I would be attracted to but the main problem is a huge language barrier. There is a mutual attraction definitely according to my friend. But I’m not sure if this will ever work because of language barrier. While I’m East Asian like her, my ancestors left China in the 1800s to go to Thailand so really the only two languages I’ve been raised to know well are English and Thai and aside from obvious East Asian Shanghai looks (where most ancestors are from) I usually identify as Thai.

The only language me and her share are English and my lame command of Mandarin. Whereas she is excellent at Mandarin but not English. Interracial/’inter-lingual’/whatever relationships are mainly about culture, since without culture there wouldn’t be "race." I feel that because of language, the different in our culture (philosophical, religious, and somewhat fiscal matters) might be rather vast and a relationship couldn’t last, no?

I want to learn Mandarin. Help?

Hi, well I am half Chinese. My mom is from Hong Kong and so I never have been exposed to the Mandarin language. I only have some knowledge of Cantonese, but I cannot speak it, I only understand it and that’s it.

I want to learn Mandarin, but what is some way to learn it? Also when people say they teach Mandarin, or some software that teaches Mandarin – do they just teach Standard Mandarin spoken in Beijing? Is there much difference between Beijing Mandarin and Shanghai Mandarin? Is it true that the Standard Mandarin that is spoken in Beijing is taking over in other regions and so the other dialects of Mandarin that are spoken in places like Suzhou, Shenzhen, etc. are not being spoken that much anymore by the young people living there?

How difficult is Mandarin to learn when comparing it to Indo-European languages such as French or English? And also what do you think is the most difficult thing about learning Mandarin? Are there any complicated things about how the language is structured?
Oh and also, how similar are Cantonese and Mandarin? Seeing as I can understand Cantonese, could that mean I would be able to understand a bit of Mandarin? Would it make it easier to learn the language?

Who tend to be wealthier: Cantonese or Mandarin?

Cantonese regions of China: Guangdong, HK, Macau, some areas in Guangxi. Many established overseas Chinese businesspeople are also Canto.

Mandarin: Anywhere else in Mainland China (Shanghai, Beijing, etc.). Many new Mandarin speaking people are starting their own businesses,

So if you take living conditions, etc. of these places and income and average them, who tend to be wealthier: Cantonese or Mandarin?

If not, will you give me an example of two characters that mean the same thing in both letters but is written differently?
I mean Cantonese. Sorry, typo. 😛

I am Chinese but I don’t speak mandarin. I speak a dialect called Hainanese. Whenever I hear people speaking ‘chinese’ I can always tell whether it is mandarin or Cantonese or whether they are speaking some other dialect which I am not rounded in.

But I’ve always wondered when I speak my dialect are mandarin speakers able to tell that I am speaking a Chinese dialect or does it sound like I am speaking some random Asian language?
Btw Hainanese sounds a lot like teochew so much so that I can understand a lot of it when I hear people speaking.

Surely, from a business perspective, Cantonese is more useful? Yes, Mandarin is spoken by (way) more people, but you can’t deny that the most economically-booming places in China speak Cantonese (Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau just to name a few). So why are foreigners being told time after time that it’s better to learn Mandarin?
@Mike: WORNG. Only 4% of Hong Kong speaks Mandarin.

Please answers from people who actually know what they’re talking about.
@Casey Y: WRONG. How are you top contributer? You can’t even perform a simple google search? Mandarin and Cantonese are completely, and utterly unintelligible. Simple google search before you spew out nonsense.
One last time: If you even NEED to google before answering, that means you DON’T know what you’re talkng about. And talking about it without even googling first is even MORE idiotic. Again, ONLY ANSWERS FROM PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.

originally came from south of Fujian? does it mean even the aboriginal Taiwanese were also mainland Chinese? does it mean Taiwan has always been part of China? let alone the 3 million people that KMT took to Taiwan that Chiang didn’t kill all speak mandarin also. Please enlighten me.
i do have a cantonese friend here, her mother speaks minnan so she also speaks minnan dialect, she told me in parts of Taiwan people speak minnan, what does it mean?

Well, the different dialects and languages…

And don’t just say, "Chinese" or "Mandarin" or "Cantonese". I’m talking…ALL dialects…please 🙂

I was just wonderin’.

=] Thanks

English to Chinese translation (simplified and wade giles please, pinyin could help) (Mandarin & Cantonese please)

I work at this little wine shop and have a lot of chinese speaking customers, we have a promotion where if you buy any 6 bottles of wines or spirits you may receive 10% off all the items but a nearly all of them believe it must be 6 of the same item, how can i say: "If you buy six or more all of them are 10% off" "any six are 10% off" "you can mix and match" and "they don’t have to be the same" I would like to have this written down so they can read it and also in wade giles so that i can say it, i am begining to study chinese but i am far from proficient. So how can you say this in both mandarin and cantonese dialects, especially mandarin.

I’ve heard that if a Cantonese speaker and a Mandarin speaker are sharing a newspaper on a train, one can read out loud to the other and not be understood, but each can read the newspaper silently himself just fine. This sounds similar to how Portuguese speakers and Spanish speakers share a similar written language, but they’re speech sounds different and they are considered different languages. Why are Mandarin and Cantonese only considered dialects of each other and not different languages? When did the split between the two occur?

How do you say "you're cute" in cantonese?

I keep getting different responses! Is it
1) lei ho hou oi?
2) lei ho hall oy?
3) nei hou ho ngoi?
Or something else? Oh, and can you tell me somewhat how to pronounce it? I speak mandarin so my cantonese accent shouldnt be completely horrible, but it would be easier if it was spelled out. Thank you so much =)

My cousin, who is six years old, cannot speak properly. I suspect this has to do with the fact he was brought up in a very confusing ‘language environment’. For instance, his mother speaks mandarin, his father speaks cantonese, and his environment speaks french.

He cannot make proper sentences, or speak clearly. He has trouble pronouncing things correctly, but I do not know if he’s following his parents’ accents, or if he just can’t say it. I tell him a word, IE: Black, and he’ll say it completely different from what I’ve said.

Furthermore, I should add that everyone in our family grew up in ‘language environments’ like his. I grew up with four/five languages, but I managed to speak clearly by the time I was two years old.

He also has trouble learning things. In his group swimming lessons, he’s often left behind because he can’t learn what the other kids are learning. He often repeats things over and over again. He doesn’t remember stuff you tell him unless it is repeated over and over again. Despite that, I do feel that he gets along well with other kids, and is somewhat of a smart child.

The question is: Should we be worried? Is he exhibiting characteristics of learning disabilities?
For your information, we have taken him to a doctor, speech therapist and child phychologist.

They all pointed out that he has been exhibiting qualities of autistic children, not extreme, but enough to be mild autism.

In addition, the speech therapist has also added that children should be speaking with an understanding by the time they reach 3, 4 years old, and if by the time of 6 years old, he still cannot be put words together or speak with an understanding, than there is a problem.

I’m sure I wasn’t the golden child. If you don’t have your facts correct, than don’t bother. All children are different, I completely agree, but if everyone thought like you did, than nobody would get the help them needed, because EVERYONE is different.

Thanks to everyone else who helped. (:

I have a lot of family in Japan, when I join the army I want to be stationed there. Which branch do I have to go through?

I speak mandarin, cantonese and japanese.

What languages can Jackie Chan speak?

I’m doing a speech on him for english, so I was wondering if you can help me out, thanks. Btw I know that he can speak cantonese, mandarin and japanese, anything else?

Want to learn Cantonese/Mandarin?

I want to learn either Catonese or Mandarin, but I don’t know which class to take. I live in New England, close to NY where I’ve hear many people speak Cantonese, but more people speak Mandarin, but that’s in China. I’m not going to China any time soon, but I want to know which language would be better in the long run. I have lots of time on my hands, I’m 13 and and it’s summer. When school starts I might do one other activitiy, so I haveas much time as I need. If there are any books or websites you recommened too that would be good!
Thanks in advance!

Is china developing an alphabet right now?

Is the chinese government trying to develop an alphabet in china right now because i think an alphabet is better than memorizing every single character. Also it helps people overseas, i know people who can speak mandarin, cantonese, wu, and others; but they cannot even write it down.

How do I speak Mandarin and Cantonese separately?

Most people in my family speak both. But they just spoke one language at first, then learned the other language later. They never mix them up in the same sentence but they sometimes alternated sentences in separate languages. They’d use 2 or 3 if you count English as well to speak to me but they’d finish a full sentence in one language before using another one.

I learned both Mandarin and Cantonese at the same time. For some reason I never could separate them well. I do the same as my family, speaking all 3 languages. However, I have an extra quirk. In the SAME sentence I could speak Mandarin and Cantonese. Though I never mixed English and Chinese in the same sentence. No one really cared, at least they understood me. But my parents told me I did separate them when I was little and never mixed them up but after a while I somehow kept speaking them all mixed together, and it still continues.

However, I’ve been living in Hong Kong for over 5 years. Whenever I talk people think I’m strange because I keep speaking Mandarin and Cantonese in the same sentence wherever I go. Some get confused at what I’m saying but I get responses in both Cantonese and Mandarin, sometimes both. Anyway so I spoke English instead sometimes, but sometimes it resulted in communication problems because they didn’t understand or couldn’t speak English well so I went back to speaking Mandarin and Cantonese.

I don’t know why but I can’t seem to separate the two languages. I never mix up English but English is completely different from Chinese so that’s a lot more of a difference.

I’m not sure what is it with the spoken part of the languages. I learned both traditional and simplified character at the same time too. My parents say I kept writing both forms mixed together when I was little. I remember that well, sort of because it had continued later on as well. But then somehow I managed to separate them and you’d never find my writing with both character types anymore, it’s either all simplified or all traditional.

Can anyone help? My family tells me who knows why I’m like that and that I’m just weird.

By the way, I never mix up Chinese with English, you’d never find me speaking English and Chinese in the same sentence. But then English is completely different from Chinese so that’s a lot more of a difference.

I need to learn Mandarin or Cantonese?

I’m going to take a night school course to either learn mandarin or Cantonese and I plan to learn only one. The thing is that most of my family speaks cantonese and I can never understand them when they talk expect for random words so I kinda want to learn to talk to them eventually. But outside of my family most people I know speak Mandarin and don’t know cantonese. I don’t want to learn a language and never use it so which one should I take?

i m currently learning mandarin, i already know english and cantonese. is there anyone who knows mandarin and english who wants to assist me on my quest to learn mandarin? if you want to assist me may you please give me your email address?

1. 这是广东话。记得我讲普通话 – It’s meant to say "This is Cantonese. Remember, I speak Mandarin."

2. 我毕业于2006年。- It’s meant to say "I graduated in 2006."

Thank you in advance.



Thank you in advance.

What Language should i Learn to Speak in HighSchool?

In My HS they Offer Mandarin, Itallian, French and Spanish and i need some help deciding what to take.
I’ve tried to learn spanish before but i can’t seem to remember the words and write them correctly
Also I can SPEAK cantonese if that’ll be of any help and i have also tried to learn Mandarin before but could not seem to feel "interested" in it( this was when i was about 11-12)
So which language do you think would be most "suited" for me and Why?

I feel awkward speaking Chinese ( mandarin)?

I know a fair bit of Chinese, but I just feel awkward pronouncing it with the tones.

It’s not that I don’t know the tones, I’m just reluctant to say it. How can I fix this and be more comfortable in speaking Chinese..?

I have Chinese friends, but their first language is Cantonese, not Mandarin. I just feel really awkward speaking with the tones, so I sort of just "say it". eh, I know that’s the worst thing you can do, but how can I be more, well, confident….I know to get better I have to speak more….

谢谢！ 🙂

What language does Philadelphia speak undercover?

I am going to get Rosetta Stone to further my language skills. I know there is a Japanese and Mandarin Proficiency Test Available in the Tri-State Area so I can eventually get certified after my Associates. However, my question is, what language should I focus on (Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, and Hebrew) to give me an advantage in Philadelphia? Rosetta Stone does not offer Cantonese. (Which is stupid!) So, besides that and Spanish, what secondary language would be a great asset in the job market for Philadelphia County?

Where to find Cantonese/Hong Kong drama shows?

I’ve been searching for sites that stream Cantonese/Hong Kong (not Mandarin Chinese) shows. I find them hard to find- I’m talking about excellent quality ones and working videos.

Anyone, know of something?

How do you say this in Mandarin Chinese?

Please translate this:

‘Hello! My name is Jackie Chan, and it’s very nice to meet you! Wait…"

I have to say that in Mandarin Chinese for a presentation.

Please include pronunciation if you can.

Thanks for the help! 😀
Also, could you translate it in Cantonese too? I’m going to need both translations.
