[trocadero]

Hi

I've just gotten a job as a teacher from next August, in Hong Kong. My husband works in telecommunications and will be looking for a job too, either in telecommunications or some related management area.

After researching whether it would be better for him to study Cantonese or Mandarin, before we go, we're no wiser. I know that Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong, but it is also spoken by more people in Hong Kong, than Mandarin, isn't it?

If he wants to work in Hong Kong, but not necessarily in any other Asian countries, should he focus on learning Cantonese, rather than Mandarin, to improve job prospects?

Thanks!

[HKChigger]

Hong Kong People's native language is Cantonese, much like French in France for instance. Hong Kong people look down on Mandarin and the locals I have met all speak better English than Mandarin. (Including my ex-girlfriend who was born and lived her first few years in the mainland)

The choice is really based on where you want to do business now and in the future. If you have plans to work with the mainland, even as close as Shenzhen it will most likely be better to learn Mandarin. If you plan on working with Hong Kong strictly Cantonese will be better as Mandarin is very rarely used here with the expection of Mainland Chinese that immigrated here.

[z754103]

Originally Posted by trocadero

Hi
Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong

Actually, Cantonese is a strong and flourishing regional language with over 100 -120 million speakers, so there's a good use for it outside of the population of HK. Most significantly, it's the daily language of Guangdong province, one of the most dynamic and outwardly oriented regions of China (population around 90 million), also widely understood in Guangxi - say half the people there are fluent, conservatively, which adds on another 25 million. Hainan island is half Min speaking and half Cantonese speaking. Plus a significant portion of overseas Chinese communities in the West, and a lot of the urban Chinese population in Malaysia as well.

Shenzhen is an aberration in Guangdong - it's a migrant city, which is a little island where there is widespread use of Mandarin, and not at all reflective of the typical daily language use of the rest of Guangdong. Older Guangdong residents who don't speak Mandarin get totally disoriented when they make trips to Shenzhen.

So in learning Cantonese you wouldn't be choosing a minor, little used language at all.

[trocadero]

Thank you very much for your insights. Cantonese it is, then! Mandarin can come later, if necessary.

Carolyn

[philippe]

Not sure where you got your numbers. The real number may be only half what you posted but I may have got the wrong data or the cantonese speaking population may have doubled in the last decade (unlikely but possible).

If somebody is going to stay in HK or Guangdong province and never move to another province I would advise to learn Cantonese instead of Mandarin. If somebody is thinking of moving someplace else later like Shanghai or Beijing it is easier, faster and safer to learn Mandarin.

Back to the number posted earlier on. Assuming they are accurate, still the ratio is about 1 to 10. For one Cantonese speaking person in the World they are 10 speaking Mandarin (Putonghua). Also, if you are familiar with china towns around the World (I always visit Chinatown when I'm in a big city like NY, Paris, Chicago...) you will notice that the older generations will speak Cantonese or hakka or hokien but the newer generations are speaking Mandarin. In other words when you go back home chances are that it will be easier to find Mandarin speakers among ethnic Chinese than Cantonese speakers. Last but not least in the Chinese Communities I know abroad you can now let your kids learn Chinese but these Chinatown schools are teaching Mandarin too.

Best of luck.

[freeier]

or another way of looking at it, the chinese government is going to push for standardisation of langauge, which is likely to be mandarin.. so if u want a faster step ahead do mandarin else do cantonese

people in hk might only speak cantonese, but people in guangzhou, esp the young ones, are going to be able to speak pth in addition to cantonese ... i.e. for watever number that was quoted there chances are more than 70% of them communicate as comfortable in mandarin as in cantonese.

[chimo]

Don't bother with Mandarin, especially if you plan on living or working in Hong Kong. Quite frankly, locals will laugh at you if you start speaking Mandaring in the workplace. And chances are, if a job requires only Mandarin, then there are about 1 billion people who can do that job at the fraction of your salary. Learning Mandarin is good to better yourself culturally, but is of no use in improving your career options. So in HK stick to Cantonese/English.

[philippe]

Originally Posted by chimo

Don't bother with Mandarin, especially if you plan on living or working in Hong Kong. Quite frankly, locals will laugh at you if you start speaking Mandaring in the workplace. And chances are, if a job requires only Mandarin, then there are about 1 billion people who can do that job at the fraction of your salary. Learning Mandarin is good to better yourself culturally, but is of no use in improving your career options. So in HK stick to Cantonese/English.

I disagree.

1. For most gweilos/gweipos, English is the only language required here. When I worked for MNCs in HK, the only persons who could not speak English were the tea lady and the driver. Among my foreign friends who have been here over a decade, only a handfull of them (mostly women) are able to speak Mandarin and/or Cantonese.

2. Now that I mostly work in China, I cannot be on some projects where Chinese speaking is a must but guess what even in Guangdong most people at the management level are Mandarin speakers.

Your mileage may vary but at least this is what I have experienced.