( Log Out / in the media. Hopefully this article will give you some guidance. It surprised me that the most sought-after schools in Hong Kong taught in English or Mandarin, rather than Cantonese, which is the default language for nearly the entire population. In fact, Mandarin is rarely heard at all in Hong Kong, that said, most Hong Kongers can indeed speak and understand Mandarin with no problems at all. But even as people get better at communicating in Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, some in Hong Kong are losing interest, or even downright refusing to speak it. “China is the second largest economy in the globe, and everybody in the outside world is trying to get into the Chinese market for opportunities,” he said. Previously, advertisements and newspapers used only standard written Chinese, which is easily comprehensible to all Chinese-literate readers, whereas non-Cantonese speakers might struggle to understand the written vernacular. Despite the fact that Cantonese shares some vocabulary with written Mandarin, the two languages are completely different when spoken due to differences in accent and vocabulary. According to Ng’s survey, 53.1% of the elementary schools in Hong Kong Island, where she lives, use Mandarin as the medium of instruction in Chinese lessons. So it seems as though Mandarin is more practical than Cantonese. The official languages of Hong Kong are English and Mandarin. Yeung said schools may take their own school contexts, including the readiness of teachers, standards of students, language environment, curriculum planning, learning and teaching support and parents’ expectations into account when they consider whether or not to adopt Mandarin as the medium of instruction. We use it to greet people casually, just like you would use “hi” in English. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Center for Language Education), Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. “Students will learn Mandarin and pinyin faster after learning English spelling.”. “She did perform better in her writing and listening after having been taught in Mandarin for two years,” he said, “But she seems loathe to speak the language in the meantime.”. It is the language of the media of much of mainland China. Mr Lau and a number of volunteers are compiling an online Cantonese dictionary, documenting its evolution. "But some of them just reject it.". Have Hong Kong's youth lost hope in the future? Mandarin is the language of business and money. So Which Chinese Language Should I Learn? In mainland China, locals and officials alike typically write Cantonese with simplified Chinese characters. Officially, the city government encourages students to become bi-literate in Chinese and English and trilingual in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. The rising educational preference for Mandarin at the expense of Cantonese is causing anger and anxiety among Hong Kong residents, 20 years after the city was handed back from the UK to … Despite the authorities’ funding, some schools have switched back to Cantonese instruction. "Speaking, and writing, Cantonese has now become an political act," said Robert Bauer. Knowing Cantonese will integrate you into your surroundings, help you navigate the city streets and manage your daily life, not to mention impress the … While this does not necessarily mean that living in Hong Kong causes non-Cantonese speaking Chinese to speak Cantonese, I would argue that this is probably a persuasive story. From a native speaker of Mandarin: Jordan Chan (Chan Siu-chun), an actor-singer who was born and raised in Guangzhou, had his personal life and career based in Hong Kong since 1985. Mandarin is the official language of China and the primary spoken language in much of the country, including Beijing and Shanghai. He explained, “Her mother tongue is not Mandarin, so she needs to translate what she thinks in Cantonese to Mandarin first before saying it, just like making a detour”, saying such a process undermined her motivation to study. Cantonese has a unique pronounication and has nine tones, it is relatively difficult enough for a foreigner compared to Mandarin, … Benefits of Cantonese. However, the dominance of Cantonese in Hong Kong remained solid, probably because of British's decision on maintaining a cultural gap between China and Hong Kong in order to facilitate her effective rules over the city. Many Hong Kongers can speak Mandarin yes but Cantonese is the language of choice in Hong Kong, followed by English. Chui Mei-ha, a white-collar worker and mother of a 9-year-old who attends a Mandarin-medium school, is satisfied with her son’s performance at school. The local dialect is Cantonese, so it may not be the most obvious choice. It caused an outcry, as Hong Kong residents certainly believe theirs is a proper form of Chinese, and not just a dialect. A report by The Education University of Hong Kong in 2015 said there is no evidence that teaching Chinese in Mandarin has any positive or negative influence on Chinese learning. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The social rejection of Putonghua has come as people question their Chinese identity, which has alarmed both the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese governments. They are the quasi-official languages in Hong Kong. "Hong Kong students are learning three [spoken] languages - Putonghua, Cantonese and English. A similar dialect is also spoken in Macau.. On its site detailing Hong Kong's language policy, it stated that Cantonese was a "Chinese dialect that is not an official language". “More and more parents now use our statistics to find schools, as they find Cantonese-medium schools to be better,” said Chan Lok-hang, convener of the association, adding that his website was “intended for those who are interested in local culture and political issues.”. What Is the Most Popular Game in the United States? In the 2016 study of 50 countries and territories, 139 schools in Hong Kong were randomly selected, involving 3,500 students at primary four level. Difference between Taiwan language and Hongkong language The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics offers a broad and comprehensive coverage of the entire field from a multi-disciplinary perspective. All chapters are contributed by leading scholars in their respective areas. Now, two decades later, that figure has nearly doubled. It said a maximum of 160 schools could join the scheme over four years. She said Cantonese families are happy for their children to be "socially fluent," but preferred them to learn Chinese literacy in Mandarin, with a standard form of written Chinese. In Guangdong province, Cantonese is used alongside Mandarin, while in Hong Kong it is used alongside English. When he was taught in Cantonese, he would use lots of spoken words in his writings because that was the way he spoke, and such usages are just not deemed standard Chinese in a strict sense.”. “The government stopped funding, so the schools lost the incentive to carry on with the campaign,” said the association’s convener. Article 23 national security law for Hong Kong: is Beijing impatient. © 2021 BBC. The majority of Hong Kong people speaks Cantonese as this is the primary language in Hong Kong, the second most spoken language is English, this is due to the increasing amount of English schools appearing in Hong Kong as well as the influence of the foreigners coming into the city. However almost all the worlds Chinatowns have their origins in Cantonese people and the language/ culture at every over represented. Hong Kong Cantonese is a dialect of the Cantonese language of the Sino-Tibetan family. In the China towns of the west it seems Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka etc are far more used/ utilized than Cantonese. Hi I've just gotten a job as a teacher from next August, in Hong Kong. Press ESC to cancel. According to these experts, Cantonese isn’t dying at all. It’s no surprise that most Chinese learners choose to study Mandarin. As for Chinese education in general, Tse proposed that elementary schools should not teach Chinese in Mandarin too early, as the ability to read is not directly related to the medium of instruction, he said, yet stressing that Mandarin is the national language that should be learned. But Ms Chan of Hong Kong Polytechnic is less pessimistic. "Especially among young people, the overall standard of Putonghua is rising," she said. This is because, for many, Putonghua has become an unwelcome reminder of the increasing "mainlandisation" of Hong Kong. The migrant workers living in perpetual lockdown, The China factor in India's Quad strategy, 'How we re-delivered a baby's postcard - 75 years on', Africa's top shots: Desert dances and metal horses. The Distinction between Word and jpg file – Use an Online Converter to Transform JPG to Word. “They say the percentage in my neighborhood is very high comparatively. In Hong Kong however, people mostly speak Cantonese. This dissertation, "An Investigation Into the Socio-psychological Factors Behind the Coinage of New Words and Expressions in Hong Kong Cantonese" by May-ngor, Chan, 陳美娥, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong ... Just like Mandarin, Cantonese is also written using both simplified and traditional characters depending on the region. He cited the history of Cantonese in Guangdong province, where he believes efforts to spread Putonghua have been too successful, with children now not using their mother tongue. When my eldest child turned two, I started looking for a suitable kindergarten. In 2005, only 209 schools, accounting for 16.3 percent of all schools in Hong Kong, used Mandarin as the medium of instruction for Chinese classes. Some of the most popular Singlish terms have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2000, including wah, sabo, lepak, shiok and hawker centre. Edward Ko, a business owner, said he was concerned over his 8-year-old’s reluctance to speak Mandarin, although she grew more confident and fluent when she spoke the language to their Mandarin-speaking relatives from Singapore. Mandarin, being the official language of the whole country, is the language for education so almost everyone speaks it. Other areas where Mandarin is spoken with identifiable regional differences have Wikipedia articles, but Hong Kong does not. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in unprecedented protests in 2014. By 1999, the Education Bureau had started publicising its long-term goal of adopting Putonghua, not Cantonese, as the medium of instruction in Chinese classes, even though it offered no timetable on when this should be achieved. But the Mandarin popularization in Hong Kong has been facing much of resistance for the two decades since the handover. If you will be spending most of your time in Hong Kong interacting with locals, you will definitely want to learn Cantonese. That’s not to say that learning Cantonese is a waste of time, and for some people, it may be the better choice, but for most people wanting to speak "Chinese", Mandarin is the way to go. “Teaching Chinese in Mandarin is putting the cart before the horse,” she added. By Juliana LiuHong Kong correspondent, BBC News. Because of its status in Hong Kong, it is the language of choice for official government functions, in contrast to Guangzhou where Mandarin functions officially. It is also widely spoken in the Guangdong (Canton) Province in Mainland China, where the language originated from. Chan Shui-duen, a professor of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that among some of her students, speaking Putonghua can almost be taboo. On the other hand, Cantonese, a variant of the Chinese language, is the official language used in the country’s two … About. "As expected, after the handover, Putonghua became more privileged and popular," said Brian Tse, a professor of education at the University of Hong Kong. If you mean spoken language, cantonese is generally NOT understood in Beijing. With our in-person training, our effective Flipped Learning Approach, and a team of more than 30 professional Mandarin or Cantonese teachers in Hong Kong, we are the market leader in comprehensive Chinese language courses for students of all levels. In Hong Kong however, people mostly speak Cantonese. The government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, established in 1997 after the United Kingdom handed over the city back to China, carries out the language policy called Bi-literacy and Tri-lingualism, which encourages the public to be able to write in Chinese and English and speak in Cantonese, English and Mandarin concurrently. Cantonese, however, is spoken largely in Hong Kong, as well as in Macau … According to the SLH’s survey, although 72.4 percent of elementary schools in the city teach Chinese in Mandarin in 2017, the number actually dropped by 10 percent from 2016. The act enraged Hong Kong students, leading to verbal wars against … Hong Kong is very westernised and has a lot of industry and banks. If you live in or around Hong Kong or Macau, then speaking Cantonese won't be an issue. In 1998, the city’s government started it campaign to lobby both elementary and secondary schools to use Mandarin instead of Cantonese when teaching Chinese, but schools were lukewarm. Too troublesome to describe in writing though examples can be given with an idea of how they would pronounce it differently from the standard pronunciation. You can, but no one will thank you for it. It is the native and de facto standard language of Hong Kong. Even though 哈囉 and 你好 are essentially the same, it’s possible to use them together. Almost 95 percent of the ethnic Chinese population who have lived in Hong Kong for more than 10 years speak Cantonese as their usual language. Hong Kong is an exciting place to take Mandarin classes. In Malay, ‘lah’ is used to change a verb into a command or to soften its tone, particularly when usage of the verb may seem impolite. What happens to your body in extreme heat? For now. This book is written primarily for teachers and students specializing in language-related disciplines. “Sometimes he can teach me Mandarin too, and this is beyond what I expected.”, She added, “On the other hand, he does do better in writing. Change ), Did you know – Timeline of Hong Kong’s language policies, Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong: language dilemma, Mandarin saga at Hong Kong’s universities. This book presents an empirically-grounded sociolinguistic history of the English language in Hong Kong in the past 170 years. Found insideSee Chinese Government's Preference for Mandarin Seen as Major Threat to ... 34 The RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong, the public broadcaster of Hong Kong) ... Writing and reading are two different skills to learn. Found insideGuangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as dialects of surrounding areas in the Pearl River Delta and Xi River valley, such as Zhongshan, Foshan, Dongguan, ... Education issues have rarely been out of the headlines in the 20 years since Hong Kong’s handover. According to Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016, which Tse took part in putting together, 4th graders in Hong Kong, who mostly learn Chinese in Cantonese, ranked No.3 in reading literacy, better than those in Taiwan ranking No.9, who are taught in Mandarin. So Which Chinese Language Should I Learn? “Putonghua as medium of instruction in Chinese schools”, or “PMIC schools” are required to use Mandarin for more than 50 percent of its time teaching Chinese, and teachers must pass an Mandarin oral test or get Grade A, Band 2 of the national Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (Test on Level of Mandarin). And how many know English too? Video, Elon Musk says he and Grimes are semi-separated, Money doesn't buy happiness at plush NYC building, Prince accepts being served with US lawsuit papers, Hundreds pay respects at Sabina Nessa vigil, Biden: 'People will pay' for horseback charge, China declares all Bitcoin transactions illegal, Nike and Costco warn of product shortages and delays, The young people out to save Hong Kong's unique opera. In the UK, for example, Cantonese is more commonly spoken than Mandarin due to larger waves of immigration from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, most people speak Cantonese, and write in Standard Chinese, which is based on Mandarin. There are not many schools she can go to.”. Students understand better when we speak Cantonese. Found inside – Page 1And do you want to master daily conversations and speak like a native? Then this is the book for you. Learn Cantonese: Must-Know Cantonese Slang Words & Phrases by CantoneseClass101 is designed for Beginner-level learners. “Studying both Mandarin and English for him, I’d say, secures a brighter future for him,” he said, comparing studying those languages to “elite education”, like learning horseriding and archery. The use of the term “meh” shows that the speaker is apathetic, uninterested, or indifferent to the question or subject at hand. Cantonese concern groups estimate that 70% of all primary schools and 25% of secondary schools now use Putonghua to teach Chinese. —, The Cantonese word sei – 死 – sei2. Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, is seen as the key to success by many Hong Kong parents. Found inside – Page 218It is on this account that the Chinese writing system can be appropriately ... In this section three dialects, Hong Kong Cantonese, Shanghainese and Fuzhou ... Mandarin is an official language in China, Taiwan, and Singapore, while Cantonese only has official status in Hong Kong and Macau. Mandarin is to China what English is to the rest … The written language is the same - Chinese . Despite the fact that Cantonese shares some vocabulary with written Mandarin, the two languages are completely different when spoken due to differences in accent and vocabulary. “We do teach children pinyin in class, and we would teach Mandarin to them once in a while, but we never force them to speak it,” she said. And Cantonese speakers are increasingly learning Mandarin to find work in Mainland China. This makes Hong Hong Cantonese on a par with Mandarin in terms of difficulty. Historically, different regions in China has their own spoken Chinese. This dissertation, "An Investigation Into the Differences in Written Chinese Between Native-speakers of Cantonese in Hong Kong and Native-speakers of Mandarin Chinese in China" by Shau-ling, Tong, 唐秀玲, was obtained from The University ... If you’re looking to move out east but you still want the comforts of home then Hong Kong and Cantonese could be for you. Mr Lau dates the rise in written Cantonese to greater awareness of a local Cantonese identity, as opposed to a more general Chinese sense of self. Cantonese, a Chinese spoken variant originating from Guangzhou city in Guangdong province is the native dialect in Hong Kong. While there are a few regional varieties of Mandarin, all … Now that we are being part of China, we have the advantage of learning Mandarin. So it seems as though Mandarin is more practical than Cantonese. VideoFreezing to death on the edge of the EU, QAnon conspiracy theories target German election. As a native from Hong Kong, I would ask some of my fellow townsmen to get rid of their pride as Hong Kongers sometimes.”, Ng said, “I hate it when they associate academic excellence with teaching in Mandarin. “The Education Bureau has no plan to conduct any evaluation on schools’ choice of MOI.”. The biggest advantage of learning Cantonese is the biggest disadvantage of learning Mandarin, that Hong Kong does not offer Mandarin learners a Mandarin speaking environment. Cantonese and Mandarin are written in the same way, though Cantonese favors traditional Chinese characters rather than simplified. Cantonese is believed to have originated after the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220AD, when long periods of war caused northern Chinese to flee south, taking their ancient language with them. They are learning them in three written forms, … "If present trends continue, children are not going to speak Cantonese down the road. Found inside – Page 211Hong Kong's Cantonese and Mandarin film industries developed on separate routes in the 1950s–70s, and they rarely mixed until the 1980s. Ultimately, your decision will depend on what you hope to accomplish by learning the language. In 1998, the city’s government started it campaign to lobby both elementary and secondary schools to use Mandarin instead of Cantonese when teaching Chinese, but schools were lukewarm. I love Cantonese as a language - it's hard but also fun and emotional. Studies found that students who learned Chinese Language in Putonghua showed improvement in Putonghua proficiency and were better in Chinese writing than their counterparts who learned the subject in Cantonese, according to the Action Plan to Raise Language Standards in Hong Kong, published by SCOLAR in 2003. Found inside – Page 67It is probably because more and more Hong Kong people cannot read and write standard Chinese. They use Hong Kong—style Cantonese and change it into “Hong ... Mandarin was documented much later in the Yuan Dynasty in 14th century China. I did not learn Mandarin at school, so I cannot speak it well now.”, “I would say it is a tradeoff, and it is all worth it,” she said. She has shared the research that she has done with other parents in a group on Facebook who share the same reluctance with her to send their children to Mandarin-medium schools. Even as resentment against Putonghua builds, there is grudging awareness that - with nearly one billion speakers in the world - fluency in the language may hold the key to wealth and success in Hong Kong. Additional information about the word: an impolite way of telling someone to quiet, shut up! Found inside – Page 108While members of the Hong Kong prodemocracy movement frequently wrote ... of the Cantonese phrase (遮打) would be lost on a Mandarin-only speaker (The ... It’s what most people automatically think of when they hear or say “Chinese.” It’s also the most commonly spoken dialect in China. In this article, we will discuss these options and give you some basics about Cantonese. In 1932, China adopted Mandarin dialect from Northern China as the standard for the whole country. Ive always read that people in Hong Kong tend to speak cantonese more than mandarin, but when I was there - granted, mostly in the airport, it seemed everyone who worked there spoke Mandarin. Now the order changed into Cantonese, Mandarin, English… Elon Musk says he and Grimes are semi-separated2, The PowerPoint that sparked an international row3, Money doesn't buy happiness at plush NYC building4, Firefighters retreat as La Palma volcano intensifies5, Prince accepts being served with US lawsuit papers6, Hundreds pay respects at Sabina Nessa vigil7, Biden: 'People will pay' for horseback charge8, China declares all Bitcoin transactions illegal9, Nike and Costco warn of product shortages and delays10. Another key feature of Hong Kong Cantonese is the merging of the two syllabic nasals /ŋ̩/ and /m̩/. Found inside – Page 28In the late seventies the sociologist I. C. Jarvie divided Hong Kong film into Cantonese and Mandarin , arguing that Cantonese movies were un - Westernized ... The PowerPoint that sparked an international row, Firefighters retreat as La Palma volcano intensifies, Gas crisis leaves Europe searching for solutions, Freezing to death on the edge of the EU. If you've been offered a job in Hong Kong, "From a linguistic point of view, it's not endangered at all. After researching whether it would be better for him to study Cantonese or Mandarin, before we go, we're no wiser. Hong Kong Cantonese tones are described as follows: But Robert Bauer, a Cantonese expert who teaches at several universities in Hong Kong, said Scolar and the Education Bureau were essentially "bribing" schools to make the switch from Cantonese to Mandarin as the medium of instruction in Chinese language classes. Found insideThe focus of this book is on the impact of politics on language and identity in Hong Kong. The book is the first study to track real time language attitude changes against a divisive political landscape. Study Mandarin or Cantonese in Hong Kong. Attempts to reach Mandarin-medium schools for response have been unsuccessful. However, the remaining 1+ billion are all speaking Mandarin. Around 90% percent of Hong Kongers still use Cantonese as their first language and there is some resentment at attempts by the Chinese government to push Mandarin. Mandarin is spoken in Mainland China and Taiwan. So, you only need to learn six tones, instead of the nine required elsewhere. Therefore, people from Hong Kong should be able to speak Standard Mandarin Chinese, but in fact, many people from Hong Kong speak fluent Cantonese and poor Mandarin. Cantonese may not entirely enjoy the "prestige" of a national language, but it is quite important - and indispensible for anyone living and working in Hong Kong. Found insideThis volume gives an up-to-date account of the language situation and social context in multilingual Hong Kong. It will become endangered.". It’s true Cantonese is only really officially the language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese Chinese is a local language commonly used in the Guangdong province, (part of) the neighbouring Guangxi province, Macau and Hong Kong. They worry the city's distinctive culture and identity will eventually be subsumed by mainland China, with some questioning if the language - and the city so closely identified with it - is dying. Moreover, it will provide a lasting and reliable resource for all fluent speakers of the language. The book is organized to promote a thorough understanding of Cantonese grammar. “There is no evidence student who learn Chinese in Mandarin excel those in Cantonese in reading abilities,” he said. Working in parallel, Mr Bauer, the Cantonese expert, will soon be publishing a Cantonese-English dictionary, which will be available online and in book form. Essentially, though, you have three choices: first, you can try to get along with English only. In the case of Mandarin and Cantonese, … I would also recommend Mandarin before Cantonese, if one wants to learn the written language because Cantonese is a spoken dialect but most written materials, including those produced in Hong Kong are in standard Mandarin - more or less the same as the one used in the rest of China, although more it is often in traditional characters. “Teaching in Mandarin will enable them to master the language on top of Cantonese.”. In the end, not only did the professor give into the demand, he also gives extra tutouring sessions to Chinese students. World Facts. Cantonese is a language widely spoken in China and particularly in the province of Guangdong where it is recognized as the lingua franca. Read about our approach to external linking. Being in Hong Kong and overall Asia, its a necessity to deal with all kinds of languages - with Cantonese, English, and more and more Mandarin inside Hong Kong - … "They're taking orders from the people of Beijing," he said. Hong Kong Cantonese differs quite radically to many other regions. In Hong Kong, the population almost exclusively uses traditional characters. However almost all the worlds Chinatowns have their origins in Cantonese people and the language/ culture at every over represented. Offers courses for non Chinese speakers and also native Mandarin speakers. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong, Macau, GuangZhou, and Southern parts of China in that vicinity. Found insideThis revised and updated new edition provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of cinema in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as to disaporic and transnational Chinese film-making, from the beginnings of cinema to the ... Like London, stations in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Guangzhou (China), and Beijing (China) feature warnings to be careful of the gap between the platform and the train. Po Leung Kuk Luk Hing Too Primary School is one of the Mandarin-medium schools. It is being taught in schools and used on national TV and radio. Cantonese is the most widely spoken form of Chinese language in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong Province. I know that Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong, but it is also … Found insideFeaturing the research on the changing landscape of the Chinese language by a number of eminent academics in the field, this volume will meet the academic, linguistic and pedagogical needs of anyone interested in the Chinese language: from ... Is Cantonese harder than Mandarin? And lastly it would be Mandarin. Fewer new residents in Hong Kong can now speak the city's lingua franca — Cantonese — amid warnings a growing move toward Mandarin could threaten the city's indigenous culture. By 2010, it was estimated that 100 million spoke Cantonese. For decades, Man Wah at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong has continued to please discerning diners looking for refined Cantonese delights. Why Learn Mandarin in Hong Kong? This can be exemplified in the elimination of the contrast of sounds between 吳 (Ng, a surname) (ng4/ǹgh in Guangzhou pronunciation) and 唔 (not) (m4/m̀h in Guangzhou pronunciation). “Mandarin is better for students’ writing, because they will not have to switch from Cantonese to Mandarin when they compose an article, given that Mandarin is similar to written Chinese,” a staff member from a school answered on phone. According to these experts, Cantonese isn't dying at all.
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