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Thread: Mandarin/cantonese Terminology

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by omarthefish
    SHANHAINESE !?!? And you thought Cantonese was hard....

    Shanghanese is famous throughout China as the most strange and indecipherable dialect of all. Besides, they speak Mandarin just fine in Shanghai.
    Hey, they are easy for me, I am Shanghainese.

  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by omarthefish
    SHANHAINESE !?!? And you thought Cantonese was hard....

    Shanghanese is famous throughout China as the most strange and indecipherable dialect of all. Besides, they speak Mandarin just fine in Shanghai.
    Actually, Ningpo wo is WORSE..... I speak some
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  3. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by Disciple
    Which one should I learn for kung fu?
    What kung fu?

    Northern styles. They speak Mandarin in the North.

    Southern styles. They speak Cantonese in the South.

    Depends on where you are too. Most immigrants to the USA who are older came from the Cantonese area of China. Most of the people where I live speak Cantonese. So it would be better for me to speak Cantonese to fit in with the people around here.

    They taught Cantonese mostly in the local college with only a few Mandarin classes because the local population was mostly Cantonese speakers. The children of the immigrants would come to class to learn to speak better to the grandparents or the relatives when they went back to China. Or for an easy A.

  4. #34
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    No....they don't speak Cantonese "in the south"..while technically correct if you want to nit pick, it is about as correct as saying they speak Italian in southern Europe.

    Cantonese is the langauge of . . . .Canton aka Guangzhou. It is also widely spoken in Hong Kong, a small island of the coast of Guangzhou.

    In other southern areas like Fujian, they speak Fujianese. In Shanghai, Shanghainese. In Sichuan (also "in the south") they speak Sichuanese. In Yunan, Yunan...er...ese? Basically everything south of the Yellow river is "in the south" and off all those provinces there is only one where they speak Cantonese and one tiny little special governmental district.

    Which is all not to say that Cantonese won't be more usefull for learning a southern style but the reasons are historical and not to do with the fallacy that "Cantonese is spoken in the south".

  5. #35
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    Most of the southern style originated from Canton/Guangdong, so it is better for you to learn Cantonese if you wish to learn Southern style.

  6. #36
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    Anyone know a good/decent introductory Mandarin text, for those of us who wish to get a grasp on the basics of Mandarin grammar and vocabulary?

  7. #37
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    Cantonese vs. Mandarin Revisited


  8. #38
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    cantonese to mandarin

    is anyone able to tell me how to say this in mandarin?

    Kyuhn wai jow, gwan wai si, sun dao wai fu mo.

    (Fist is seed, staff (pole) is teacher,
    sun and moon blades are mother and father.)

    this is what i think it is so far but need help with the rest (and these might also be wrong)

    kyuhn=quan
    gwan=gan
    fumo=fumu
    and i think dao is the same in both.
    i am also guessing that wai is the verb "to be" so that would be "shi"

  9. #39
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    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by BruceSteveRoy View Post
    is anyone able to tell me how to say this in mandarin?

    Kyuhn wai jow, gwan wai si, sun dao wai fu mo.

    (Fist is seed, staff (pole) is teacher,
    sun and moon blades are mother and father.)

    this is what i think it is so far but need help with the rest (and these might also be wrong)

    kyuhn=quan
    gwan=gan
    fumo=fumu
    and i think dao is the same in both.
    i am also guessing that wai is the verb "to be" so that would be "shi"
    Shi means "is" which is slightly different than "to be"

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  10. #40
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    thanks! my chinese is absolutely awful

  11. #41
    Gwan Wai Si.

    Si may be Shi or teacher.


  12. #42
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    mainlandisation

    Cantonese is definitely declining.

    Students protest in Hong Kong over compulsory Mandarin


    There are growing concerns in Hong Kong that academic freedoms are being squeezed by Beijing. (Photo: AFP/Philip Fong)
    26 Jan 2018 05:34PM

    HONG KONG: Hundreds of Hong Kong students protested Friday (Jan 26) as tensions escalate on campuses over compulsory testing of Mandarin - the dominant language of mainland China.

    The first language of Hong Kong is Cantonese and proposals from education chiefs to put more emphasis on learning Mandarin have tapped into fears about the "mainlandisation" of the semi-autonomous city's culture and identity.

    Anger has mounted since two students from Baptist University were suspended this week for confronting and swearing at staff over the requirement to pass an exam in Mandarin before being able to graduate.

    Their suspension comes as concern grows that academic freedoms are being squeezed by Beijing, and that freedom of speech as a whole is under threat.

    Protesters from a range of universities gathered Friday afternoon in a public square at Baptist to support suspended pair Andrew Chan and Lau Tsz-kei, chanting: "Shame on student suppression!"

    "Never mind if we have been suspended, but what if it happens to you all?" an emotional Chan told the crowd, wiping away tears.

    Lau, who is president of the Baptist student union, admitted they need to reflect on their actions towards staff but said he was "very disappointed" in the university chief's decision to suspend them.

    "I never thought he would do this," Lau said.

    Lau and Chan were among 30 students who confronted staff in an eight-hour stand-off at the university's language centre last Friday after it was revealed that 70 per cent of those who had taken a Mandarin proficiency test had failed.

    The test was introduced last year for students seeking exemption from a compulsory course in the language.

    Students have highlighted the complexity of the proficiency test questions, and say the marking system was not transparent.

    Supporters of compulsory testing say Mandarin skills boost students' career prospects, but many feel they should have the right to choose their own subjects.

    Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland since being handed back to China by Britain in 1997, under a "one country, two systems" deal.

    But there are rising concerns that those liberties are under threat.

    Universities have increasingly become battlegrounds after the mass Umbrella Movement protests of 2014 demanding democratic reforms.

    The rallies, which failed to win concessions, were spearheaded by university student leaders and were an unprecedented rebuke to Beijing.

    Since then, appointments of pro-establishment figures to senior university positions have riled students and some staff.

    There has also been anger over university officials' opposition to the expression of pro-independence views on campuses.

    University chiefs penned a joint statement in September saying freedom of expression was "not absolute" after pro-independence banners popped up at the beginning of term.

    The emergence of activists calling for Hong Kong to split from the mainland has infuriated Beijing, with President Xi Jinping saying he will not tolerate challenges to Chinese sovereignty.

    Source: AFP/zl
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  13. #43
    Back in the day, all the Kung Fu coming to the states and movies out of "hong kong" cinema was Cantonese. So much so that in the late 80s/early 90s if your plan was to train on the west coast or in canada, it was the preferred dialect to learn. Now it's all but useless in our particular (peculiar?) circles.

  14. #44
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    The last time I was in Hong Kong was 1990, when it was still under British control, so lots has changed since then. Even though I'm not a Cantonese speaker, IMO it would be sad if HK becomes like just every other mainland China city. IMO, they should allow HK to maintain its own unique character, but I don't think China will accept that.

    Before I went to live overseas, I watched a ton of subtitled KF movies in Asian theaters here in the States. Most of the Shaw Brothers period films and earlier Golden Harvest films were dubbed in Mandarin. And all of the Taiwan films were as well. The only KF films I remember consistently in Cantonese were independent productions from HK.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 01-31-2018 at 03:39 PM.

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