Cantonese has official status in Hong Kong and is the main language used by locals in Hong Kong. Although not all 7.5 million HKers speak Cantonese, the majority of them do - Cantonese is also spoken in neighbouring Guangdong Province and Macau, boosting a total of approximately 60 million speakers worldwide. It would be the language my friend and his family would hear most often in the streets and it would be useful for them to be able to understand what people are saying to each other in Cantonese. There'll be plenty of chances to use it everyday. It would not be hard for them to pick up the language if they are surrounded by Cantonese speakers everywhere they go in Hong Kong. Oh imagine if the gwailo could understand what the locals are saying about him in Cantonese. Please also note that my friend has two young children - it would be great chance for them to learn a new language in a native environment.
Mandarin 普通话
Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong tend to be able to speak English - well, the quality of their English will vary but as in the case of Singapore and Malaysia, it would be rare to find someone who really couldn't speak any English at all. That is, of course, unless they are from China. A huge influx of migrants from mainland China, attracted by the bright lights of Hong Kong are unlikely to speak much (if any) English at all. As in the case in Singapore, these migrant workers from China are usually poorly integrated and expect the local Hong Kongers to use Mandarin to communicate with them and make little effort to speak any Cantonese or English. A local Hong Konger may just switch to English the moment they see that my friend is a gwailo, however a migrant worker from China is probably a monolingual Mandarin speaker. In any case, many Hong Kongers do speak some Mandarin these days and you can then communicate with all of China: there are a total of over 1.05 billion speakers of Mandarin in the world - that's a lot more than 60 million Cantonese speakers. Thus in the long run, a knowledge of Mandarin would be more useful than Cantonese for sure.
The case against Cantonese is that it is not that useful - the vast majority of Hong Kongers do speak some English. My friend would certainly be in an English speaking environment in the Hong Kong office. Maybe there would be old grandmothers in Hong Kong who speak virtually no English at all, but how likely is my friend going to cross paths with someone like that? Really, it is highly unlikely for my friend and his family to form any kind of meaningful relationship with anyone who isn't already fluent in English. In any case, both Mandarin and Cantonese are very difficult to learn for white people and it is questionable just how far they may get with either. They could spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to learn Chinese but have very little use for it in somewhere like Hong Kong - it's not like they are going to live in China where people are far less likely to speak any English at all. He is moving to Hong Kong after all.
So, what do you think? I am not including an option of "learn both Cantonese and Mandarin" - time is limited for him, he's moving to Hong Kong next year and they have a few months to learn either if they are going to even try. There isn't enough time to learn both. Please cast your votes below and let me know which option you would recommend please (along with your reasons why). It has been a very long time since I've been to Hong Kong, I am casting a vote for Mandarin but I may be wrong - my Cantonese sucks and I am a Mandarin speaker, perhaps that's why I am a bit biased. Or should my friend even bother? Let me know what you think, thanks for reading. Um khoi nei, do-tseh!
Cantonese or don't bother. Mainlander would be working in retail or those HK cafe. Also most of the Mainlanders would be from surrounding provinces which should be able to speak Cantonese.
ReplyDeleteCantonese. This is short term language acquisition and usage, so he should learn whatever helps him fit best into his closest environment. Once he returns, he will probably forget most of it within 2 years, right?
ReplyDeleteMastering Mandarin for the sake of being able to communicate worldwide with all people who originated from mainland-PRC for the rest of his life? But, that is such an unlikely scenario. And it causes him to sacrifice increased fluency in his interactions with the Cantonese speaking locals in HK, his immediate future home & place of employment.
My friend is already fluent in 3 languages (French, Japanese and English) so I thought he'd pick up a 4th language with ease (he can already read Kanji!) - but that's why I thought Mandarin is more useful in the long run than Cantonese. But is Mandarin really useless in HK?
DeleteUnless he has plans to work in Mainland China, it's Cantonese or nothing. It's mostly Cantonese in Hong Kong.However many speak English too.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! That's three votes for Cantonese or nothing so far. Really?! Was I really that salah to suggest that Mandarin would be useful (because of the PRCs). I'm basing my recommendation on Singapore really as I've not set foot in HK in decades (I was last there in 1985 and can't remember). In S'pore, Mandarin would definitely be an advantage (as opposed to Cantonese or Hokkien) mainly because of the huge number of PRCs who don't speak English.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am intrigued by what Choaniki said - are the PRCs in HK mostly Cantonese speaking ones from neighbouring Guangdong province or also from further afield (ie. thus won't speak Cantonese)?
Thanks guys.
I had an ex-colleague from Hunan whose dialect is definitely not Cantonese but she mastered it after working in Shenzhen for some period of time.
DeleteThe main reason why i mentioned Guangdong is because of entry requirements which you can view at the official HK website: http://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/visas/overseas-chinese-entry-arrangement.html#a
Only PRCs from following cities are allow a single visitor VISA all others require to join group tours (which won't aid job interviews): Guangdong Province and 28 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Taizhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing, Chengdu, Jinan, Shenyang, Dalian, Nanchang, Changsha, Nanning, Haikou, Guiyang, Kunming, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Changchun, Hefei and Wuhan.
You would notice, from the list, that most of those are huge cities considered the provincial seat so i doubt they would travel all the way to HK for a chance at a job (that might be menial). The exception being the Guangdong province where residents from all cities even the rural villages and 4th tier cities where the residents have no employments opportunities and would be willing to travel over to HK for a chance at any job that might come their way.
And the main consideration why i mention not to bother with Mandarin is geopolitical. You are considering studying of Mandarin using a practical perspective which is not wrong. But do remember that the HK people don't have very good feelings towards the PRCs who come over to buy up their properties, abuse their healthcare and jam up their streets doing duty-free shopping.
When in HK either use Cantonese or speak in English so that the locals know you are not a Mainlander. Their attitude and courtesy will change 180 deg once you start using Mandarin with them (this i have observed 1st hand). It is ok though if the person you are talking to starts speaking Mandarin first, they might be a PRC themself.
Wow. Thanks for that. Is there really so little use for Mandarin then in HK?
DeleteAnd what would you suggest for my friend: learn Cantonese or don't even bother as everyone will just switch to English as he's a gwailo?
Cantonese. My sentiments exactly, @choaniki.
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for Cantonese?! Good grief. I stand corrected. No one voting for Mandarin at all?!?!
DeleteMandarin Hong Kong just doesn't make sense.
DeleteHave been watching TVB dramas since young with subtitle in raw format, I will also vote for Cantonese.
ReplyDeleteWell, much depends on future plans - at least as far as they can foresee: is their experience in HK just an "episode"? Are they likely to move to China proper in the near- or mid-term?
ReplyDeleteIn the former case, I would say Cantonese or nothing at all makes more sense - in the latter, I'd begin studying Mandarin.
To cut a long story short, it is highly unlikely for them to move to China ever - they are far more likely to return to France or the UK after the HK stint is over.
DeleteOh, O.K. - they'd better learn some Cantonese to make their stay easier, then :)
DeleteUpdate: my French friend has decided to learn Mandarin after all. His reasoning is that he will not need Cantonese with his colleagues/clients in HK, but since he may have to deal with clients in China or even Taiwan, Mandarin would be useful. And that most Cantonese speakers will understand Mandarin and it is not a problem for them to use it to communicate with him if they don't speak English as it's so obvious from his blonde hair and blue eyes that he's a Gwailo and not a PRC. Yeah, it boiled down to that.
ReplyDelete