Learning Mandarin in HK?

[Harvey]

Is going to Hong Kong and trying to learn Mandarin as crazy as going to Spain and trying to learn German?

I'm running into a lot of job opportunities in HK... and wondering if I should rule them out because I wouldn't have a chance to learn Mandarin living in HK. Or... would it be possible if I put in the effort?

[Chen Ming's Best Fan]

Doing business in Hong Kong requires you to speak Mandarin.

[skylee]

Oh really? Not English? Not Cantonese?

[Chen Ming's Best Fan]

You can't survive on Cantonese alone in Hong Kong. You can, however, survive on English. Most business people speak Mandarin so it's legitimate to learn Mandarin.

[Ncao]

Doing business in Hong Kong requires you to speak Mandarin.

Where did you get this information? Yes Mandarin is useful and maybe necessary only when HK people do business with Mainlanders or Taiwanese, but required I don't think so. In my opinion HK isn't the right place to learn Mandarin,since most of the population don't really speak it.

[Harvey]

Doing business in Hong Kong requires you to speak Mandarin.

What experience do you have that makes you confident in this fact Chen Ming's Fan? This is the first time I have ever heard this before.

Thanks for any tips~

[wix]

Is going to Hong Kong and trying to learn Mandarin as crazy as going to Spain and trying to learn German?

No, but maybe its a bit like going to Vancouver to learn French (as compared with going to Montreal).

If you have other reasons for going to Hong Kong, then it is OK to study there. But if your primary interest is studying Mandarin go to China or Taiwan.

[atitarev]

No' date=' but maybe its a bit like going to Vancouver to learn French (as compared with going to Montreal).

If you have other reasons for going to Hong Kong, then it is OK to study there. But if your primary interest is studying Mandarin go to China or Taiwan.[/quote']

Even in China, I would choose a Mandarin (Putonghua) speaking area if I went to China to learn Mandarin, although it's colder

In Taiwan you will learn traditional, not simplified characters and its Mandarin (Guoyu) is somewhat different from the mainland Mandarin (Putonghua) and Taiwan has its own accents and dialects.

[Ncao]

Even in China' date=' I would choose a Mandarin (Putonghua) speaking area if I went to China to learn Mandarin, although it's colder

In Taiwan you will learn traditional, not simplified characters and its Mandarin (Guoyu) is somewhat different from the mainland Mandarin (Putonghua) and Taiwan has its own accents and dialects.[/quote']

Who says Mainland Mandarin is the proper kind Mandarin?!

[Quest]

You can't survive on Cantonese alone in Hong Kong. You can, however, survive on English. Most business people speak Mandarin so it's legitimate to learn Mandarin.

I also wonder where you got that information... Of course you can survive on Cantonese alone in Hong Kong, most Hong Kong natives speak only Cantonese and nothing else.

[atitarev]

Who says Mainland Mandarin is the proper kind Mandarin?!

I am only stating that there IS a difference. For a person wishing to use Chinese in China, you need to learn and get used to that version of accents, words, writing system, etc. If you want to live/work in Taiwan or want to learn traditional characters, learn Taiwanese kind of Chinese, that's all. Nothing against Taiwan at all.

I saw a big list of computer and other neologisms + geographical names, which are different in mainland and Taiwan, one needs to be aware of those differences.

[Ian_Lee]

but maybe its a bit like going to Vancouver to learn French

The analogy is not quite appropriate. The chance that you come across anyone in Vancouver who knows any French may be one out of ten. But the chance that you come across anyone in Hong Kong who knows Mandarin may be one out of two.

IMO the difference between Mainland Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin is like the difference between British English and American English. Of course there are some different terms that are used by respective societies (i.e. fortnight vs bi-weekly, lorry vs truck, etc), but such terms are easily comprehensible after a short term adjustment.

Regarding the adjustment of tradtional/simplified scripts, actually it is also quite easily adapted.

[wushijiao]

Even in China, I would choose a Mandarin (Putonghua) speaking area if I went to China to learn Mandarin, although it's colder

I agree with this. And, not to broaden the topic too much, I wonder to what degree learning Mandarin in Hong Kong is different from learning Mandarin in other non-Mandarin speaking areas of China (say, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou...etc).

In Shanghai, for example, only 25% of people speak Mandarin, and only 35% at the office (if I remember correctly). People educated in the last decade or two speak Mandarin just fine, of course. But it seems to me, when they speak Mandarin they speak with little slang, probably because Mandarin is only used for formal occacions like in school and in official meetings. Sometimes when I try using slang words that I've learned from books, or slang words that I've learned in the North, it seems people in Shanghai don't understand. This is probably because in Shanghai most colloquial, informal speech is still spoken in Wu.

Clearly, Mandarin is much more widespread in the southern Mainland than it is in HK due to the PRC's linguistic policies. But in HK, you can probably still watch Mandarin-speaking TV shows, and certainly the newspapers, magazines and books would be more interesting due to the lack of censorship.

I guess an important question might be: to what degree can young people in HK speak and understand Mandarin?

[gougou]

and certainly the newspapers, magazines and books would be more interesting due to the lack of censorship.

Aren't most of the publications in HK in Cantonese? At least that's what I heard while I was there. But then again, maybe my girl friend just was trying to keep me out of the book shops...

[Ncao]

Aren't most of the publications in HK in Cantonese? At least that's what I heard while I was there. But then again, maybe my girl friend just was trying to keep me out of the book shops...

Your girlfriend was trying to keep you away from the bookstores. Most publications in HK are in standard Chinese, with the exception of the tabloids.

[gougou]

Darn! But once on the mainland, there was no holding me...

[Ian_Lee]

Now Beijing tries to ban the Taiwan/HK accented Mandarin which is so popular that many TV anchors in Mainland emulate:

http://news.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/newslist/newslist-content/0,3546,110505+112005091500088,00.html

According to the report, what Beijing don't like about Taiwan/HK accented Mandarin is its 嗲

For instance,

這個好好看哦

不知那是什麼東東耶！

真的很不錯喲

等我一下下哦

And if the TV anchors still dare to speak in Taiwan/HK accented Mandarin, they may be laid off.

[atitarev]

Now Beijing tries to ban the Taiwan/HK accented Mandarin which is so popular that many TV anchors in Mainland emulate:

http://news.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/newslist/newslist-content/0' date='3546,110505+112005091500088,00.html[/url']

According to the report, what Beijing don't like about Taiwan/HK accented Mandarin is its 嗲

For instance,

這個好好看哦

不知那是什麼東東耶！

真的很不錯喲

等我一下下哦

And if the TV anchors still dare to speak in Taiwan/HK accented Mandarin, they may be laid off.

Ian_Lee, could you please explain, what your post means in English? Is it about interjections used in Taiwan/HK?

[atitarev]

One of the dialect maps here shows the distribution of dialects in mainland China.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Chi_ling3.png

I wonder how accurate it is nowadays? Should be people deciding on where to go learn and practice Mandarin, use this map? I know there are no places with "pure" Mandarin and that northern provinces have more population speaking Mandarin than in the south and that South-Western provinces have Mandarin dialects, which may not be intelligible to Northern Mandarin speakers.

From the posts in this forum I understand that many larges cities have a lot of Mandarin migrants and more and more people choose to speak it even in the the orginally "dialect zones". So for example, Shanghai is in the centre of Wu but Mandarin is spoken a lot with a Southern pronunciation and a mixture of Wu constructs. What about other major cities in South China? Are you likely to get a lot of Mandarin in Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Haikou (Hainan), other large and small cities? Or you need to be prepared to learn the dialects as well?

[yorkie_bear]

I wouldn't goto Hong Kong with the aim of learning Mandarin, BUT if you were there, it should be very easy to get a good language class. You would't have a proper opportunity to practise though, except the reading & writing. I wonder what great job opps are coming your way? Personally, I think living in HK is a wonderful experience in itself!

In terms of needing mandarin to work in HK, it depends...definitely employers see it as a massive plus if mandarin is spoken. Graduates are learning mandarin willy nilly but I have to say, in general, the accent is quite strong and can be hard to understand.

what's the poem?

天不怕

地不怕

只怕香港人说普通话！

Still, everyone from shopkeepers to bankers, waiters to lawyers is learning mandarin.