Most Commonly Spoken Form Chinese in US?

[Brooke]

Hi all,

This is my first time posting here. I am currently residing in the US and am a couple of months into studying Mandarin. I'm currently using Pimsleur's material, plus doing a lot of study on the side, and am just getting to where I can pick out phrases in Chinese movies, recordings, etc. and understand what they mean (yay!). I have a couple friends who are native speakers and are helping me, but one of them mentioned awhile back that he seems to think that most Chinese overseas speak Cantonese. Is this true? Do any of you know what the most commonly spoken form of Chinese is in the US? I know there are differences between Mandarin and Cantonese, but what I'm not sure about is whether Cantonese speakers can understand those who speak Mandarin, and vice versa? How difficult would it be for somebody to learn both? Are there principles or aspects that are the same and can be carried over? I'm just curious, but thought I would go ahead and ask now rather than regret later on that I didn't. Thanks!

-Brooke (布鲁克)

[hakkaboy]

Brooke, it used to be the case that most Chinese in Western countries spoke Cantonese, but this is changing. there was an article in the New York Times about the decline of Cantonese in the Chinatowns of America. There are principles that can be carried over between Chinese dialects, but they are not mutually intelligible, although many overseas Chinese will understand or even speak more than one dialect. there are many more resources available to learn Mandarin.

[Ferno]

-Mandarin and Cantonese speakers normally cannot understand each other. Because Mandarin is dominant, many Cantonese send their children to Chinese schools where Mandarin is taught as well as characters, and of course people from Hong Kong have some Mandarin in school. They also listen to Mandarin music from Taiwan. Native Mandarin speakers aren't likely to know any Cantonese.

-I'm not sure about the Cantonese/Mandarin ratio. The article hakkaboy mentioned is here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cantonese3jan03,0,7885274,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Personally I hear more Mandarin than Cantonese in daily life.

[L-F-J]

Every single fast-food Chinese restaurant: Fujianese

[Brooke]

Thanks guys! Btw, Ferno, I visited that link, but ended up a blog that didn't seem to mention the article anywhere. Hmm... perhaps the wrong link got pasted. Either way, you've each helped quite a bit. Oh, and L-F-J, they really speak Fujianese in the Chinese restaraunts? Wow... who'da thunk it? Oh well, you've reconfimed my decision to learn Mandarin, which is what I need to know. Thanks!

[Quest]

You can't go wrong with learning Mandarin, unless you have special interest in a certain dialect.

[Ferno]

yeah sorry brooke i posted the wrong clipboard item, its changed now :0

i'm not sure about the fujianese thing - what % of Chinese immigrants are from Fujian?

I wonder, why do I hear so much about Fujianese but immigrants or students from other provinces speak Mandarin and not their local dialect?

[onebir]

Re Fujianese - the province has a tradition of exporting labour, often via illegal channels. In fact i recall seeing a paper on the web once that described the situation and the impact of fujianese migrant workers on the province - parts (esp fuqing) are relatively rich from repriated earnings, and up to 1/3 of people of working age are abroad at any one time...

In london it's the same - lots of restaurant workers are fujianese. But the younger they are, the better mandarin they tend to speak...

[L-F-J]

Yeah, well Mandarin is the standard dialect so you can't go wrong with it. Most people will speak it anyway. More than the other dialects.

As for the Fujianese subject, every fast food Chinese restaurant is run by Fujianese as I have seen around here. The bigger sit-in restaurants aren't usually run by Fujianese. And right, most of them aren't here legally. When they lose or fire a worker they have a brand-new one working the very next day coming from NYC. All across the USA it's like they have a large stock of Fujianese workers who aren't here legally. They have the connections and never run short on new workers when they need them.

[amego]

Woo Fujianese=Hokkien=my dialect=cool