Learning Mandarin in a Cantonese Environment

[Shane Moore]

As I mentioned in another thread, I am considering a move to Hong Kong. However, my work takes me frequently into the mainland, so I have chosen to learn Mandarin over Cantonese.

My question is for those English speakers that tried to learn Mandarin while immersed in a Cantonese environment. How do you feel it affected the progress of your learning? Would you recommend it, or would it perhaps be better to learn Cantonese first and then pick up Mandarin?

Thanks ahead of time for any replies.

[DrZero]

Steve Kaufmann, whose web site is called The Linguist (he speaks nine languages) and who has posted here, probably has some insight on this. I believe he learned Mandarin while living in Hong Kong years ago. He is a Canadian whose Mandarin is excellent.

[Shane Moore]

Thanks DrZ. I have actually briefly visited his site once before. Perhaps I will search around a bit on it and see if he covers this any.

[DrZero]

Yes and you can contact him directly via blog comments or e-mail.

[WoAiJolinTsai]

lol.. steve kauffman finds his way into every thread

[Shane Moore]

Yeah...I have noticed his name pop up quite a bit around here, though this is the first place I ever heard of him. I don't recall seeing him mentioned on any of the other Chinese language forums I have visited.

[wannabeafreak]

Living in Hong Kong myself, I am clueless how you could possibly use the environment around you to improve in Mandarin.

1) Even if you could speak some half decent Mandarin, people would rather practice their English.

2) Even if they knew Mandarin, they would probably pretend that they only know Cantonese so to maximise the chance for English practice.

3) TVB and ATV is all in Cantonese

4) I read that 98% of the population speak Cantonese and if you managed to find opportunities, you would be exposed to accented Mandarin and not necessarily at a level that is native leading to potential bad habits.

5) Maybe if you go to Tsim Sha Tsui and welcome the tourists, however, you'll probably scare them off.

6) I know in Tin Shui Wai, most of the mainland immigrants are more interested in learning Cantonese and English leading to (1) and (2)

[Shane Moore]

Thanks wannabe...that is exactly the kind of information I was looking for and is pretty much what I expected.

I look forward to hearing from others with experience in this area.

[atitarev]

Wannabreakfree, you described a very gloomy prospect of learning Mandarin in Hong Kong. Well, at least you are surrounded by Chinese characters (traditional) + you can get some Mandarin TV channels and read newspapers. Don't you have any TV channels in Mandarin?

[wannabeafreak]

Wannabreakfree, you described a very gloomy prospect of learning Mandarin in Hong Kong. Well, at least you are surrounded by Chinese characters (traditional) + you can get some Mandarin TV channels and read newspapers. Don't you have any TV channels in Mandarin?

Unless you get Cable TV, you are stuck with 2 Cantonese + 2 English channels. From my point-of-view, it would be like trying to learn Chinese in China town. How effective is it to learn Chinese in an English speaking environment? Maybe *slightly* better in Hong Kong, but I wouldn't expect massive improvements that are gained from the necessity of using a language in the environment.

[atitarev]

I thought in Hong Kong you would be able to watch free-on-air Chinese TV channels, just because of the proximity to mainland China. Even in East Germany (GDR) they had to block TV and radio channels from West Germany to stop people from watching and listening, but this blocking often failed. I don't think Hong Kong blocks Chinese channels from China.

Can't you tune your TV to watch TV from neighbouring Guangdong province (in Mandarin)?

I am surprised that mainland China hasn't offered free TV for Hong Kong viewers or is it because Hong Kong doesn't want it? Is this a political issue?

[skylee]

Re TV channels in Mandarin. I think it depends on where you live (whether the building has the facilities to receive the signals). I could access a few Mandarin Channels (Phoenix, 華娛, CCTV4) at home, and that's all. And I am not really interested.

I would think it is a money issue, not a political one.

[atitarev]

So here's the answer to the original posters question, try to get access to those TV channels at least - you can hear Mandarin spoken, better than nothing.

[Shane Moore]

Yeah...I guess my only hope is to watch as much mainland TV as possible and to try to find some native Mandarin speakers to make friends with.

Of course, if I end up in Shenzhen, the process of learning Putonghua should go much faster. Hong Kong is very easy to get around in only speaking English, but Shenzhen and Guangzhou, not so much.

[atitarev]

There are quite a few ads by Mandarin tutors too.

[BrandeX]

Install TVU player:

http://www.tvunetworks.com/

and you can watch many mainland channels free streaming live onto your PC

[atitarev]

Thanks. It's a good option if you have a cheap and fast internet connection.

[Shane Moore]

Great option BrandeX. Thanks for the link.