I never learned the fluency in Chinese language speacially Cantonese. We were all wondering, after 150 years of Brtitish rule Hong Kong never adapted English as a second language. They , traded, lived and fashioned their future through their own language.

First they needed people who could speak English and Cantonese (bi-lingual) when applying for a job.Now, one must be able to speak fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin (tri-lingual) to maintain a firm place under the Hong Kong sun


China flourished and succeeded with their own. Like the Japanese, they never depended on English to communicate. They made their way on top through their own native dialect. Why study Chinese? Because it is the language of the future . Nobody back home told me about this forecast

http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/3/9/90246493.html

no work today

It's holiday here, it's buddha's birthday!

have all the time for the net






<br><br>Post edited by: linsi, at: 2007/05/24 06:48

When I was in Hong Kong, I never try to learn Cantonese. I wanted to improve my mandarin first, but I had few oportunities to use it, because at that time hongkong people only speak Cantonese or English. So I used this language.

Jacques wrote:

QUOTE:
When I was in Hong Kong, I never try to learn Cantonese. I wanted to improve my mandarin first, but I had few oportunities to use it, because at that time hongkong people only speak Cantonese or English. So I used this language.

hi jacques

is potunghua the same as mandarin? because three languages now are spoken here, aside from english and cantonese, there is the addition of potunghua.

That is right: Potunghua is the same as mandarin.

John

Sandvand wrote:

QUOTE:
That is right: Potunghua is the same as mandarin.

John

is that so john? ayayay! how ignorant of me
anyway i learned one thing that potunghua
is the same as mandarin.

Hi Linsi,

Yes putonhua and madarin is the same.

Why the chinese language was told &quot;mandarin&quot; ? It's because it was the language of the Court.So the contests to become a civil servant (mandarin) were in the language spoken at the imperial palace.

When the Mandchu dynasty was replaced by republic in 1912, there was no more mandarins, so the name of Beijing language has been changed in Guoyu&quot; 'National Language'

After the victory of the communists, they again change the name to 'putonghua' (common language) by difference with the local dialects or minorities languages.

Hi Linsi,

The british where just the rulers of HK, but the more rich peoples here where not the British : Chineses, Indians, Americans, South-africans... the the low class hongkongeses who had not to deal with the british administration, so they talked between them in their common language (cantonese or hakka...)