Do all cities use Cantonese in Guangdong?

[woodcutter]

People seldom answer this kind of mail, but if any wise person could tell me the places NOT to go and learn Cantonese in Guangdong then I would be grateful, since I am thinking of teaching down there next year, and would like to pick up some Cantonese if possible.

[Jive Turkey]

That is a very valid question. I am sure that the forum's Cantonese speakers will be able to give a more detailed answer than I, but yes, "Cantonese" varies a great deal in Guangdong province to the point that you wouldn't call a lot of Guangdong's languages Cantonese.

I live in HK and my wife is a HK Canontese speaker. I can follow most daily conversations in HK Cantonese. However, it is a little more difficult for me to follow Guangzhou Cantonese. I'm sure it would be a lot easier if I would just learn one of these two forms of the language. Although there are some differences between HK and GZ Cantonese, people from these two cities have no difficulty understanding each other. Outside of these two places, Cantonese can vary widely. Then in other parts of Guangdong, you will find large communities of non-Cantonese speakers. In Shantou and Haifeng, everyone speaks a variant of Minnanhua. In Chaozhou, they speak Chaozhouhua, which to my wife's ear sounds nothing like HK or Guangzhou Cantonese. In the new cities like Shenzhen or Dongguan, a lot of the Cantonese you will hear is spoken by non-native speakers, so it sounds funny to the HK or GZ ear. If I were going to study Cantonese, I'd only do it in HK or GZ. Keep in mind, though, that GZ Cantonese has adopted a lot of Mandarinisms that sound silly to the HK ear, while HK Cantonese has adopted a lot of English words.

[SassybutSweet]

Why don't you just learn the language where you are,and then take it to GZ?!

[keith]

If you insist to teach in Mainland China, I think Guangzhou is the safest bet to learn Cantonese.

I am aware Chinese people speak more than just Cantonese dialect in Guangdong region.

Hope this helps.

[shibo77]

A lot of them speak Hakka or Min, probably Minnan (Southern Min).

Not sure, if everyone knows a bit of Cantonese, or if most know a bit of Mandarin...

-Shibo

[woodcutter]

Thank you one and all. Let's rephrase the question though - apart from Guangzhou and Hong Kong (plus Shenzhen), is there any large city with fairly "standard" Cantonese?

[Jive Turkey]

Thank you one and all. Let's rephrase the question though - apart from Guangzhou and Hong Kong (plus Shenzhen), is there any large city with fairly "standard" Cantonese?

You probably won't hear much "standard" Cantonese in Shenzhen. Almost all the people living in Shenzhen are from other provinces. It was just a village 25 years ago. A lot of the outsiders there are able to speak Cantonese, but I doubt if a Guangzhou or Hong Kong native speaker of Cantonese would consider it anything close to "standard." Your best bet is either Hong Kong or Guangzhou. Macau would probably be good, too.

[TSkillet]

Standard Cantonese cities: places close to Guangzhou like Nanhai, Dongguan tend to have fairly standard Cantonese.

Dialects - a lot of the places inbetween Zhuhai and Guangzhou have very thick dialects - Shunde, Zhongshan, Taishan, etc.

Further north - people speak Minnanhua - along the coast (Xiamen)

[woodcutter]

I was especially wondering about Donguan, because university jobs seem very easy to come by there, so thanks for the advice.

[Alexandra]

Anyone know which dialect they speak in Jiangmen - or how it compares with Hong Kong Cantonese?

Thank you.

[keith]

Generally speaking HK Cantonese is somewhat different from Mainland Cantonese, so I doubt it would be similar to Jiangmen if they spoke Cantonese...