wannabeafreak Posted February 18, 2008 at 03:06 AM Report Posted February 18, 2008 at 03:06 AM 10 million guest workers make up the dominant population of Shenzhen, the only city in Guangdong, in which speaking Putonghua is not discriminated. Although the residents more or less speak Cantonese to a varying degree of fluency. As mentioned above, you more likely get people speak Mandarin to you in the street scene. Could you expand on the discrimination part? Is Mandarin looked down upon in Guangdong? Quote
huisheng Posted February 18, 2008 at 03:11 PM Report Posted February 18, 2008 at 03:11 PM It's not the language itself, but the users that is discriminated. Rooted in the locals' mentality, whoever speaks Mandarin got to be a guest worker (外来劳工) coming to the province for low skilled jobs. Obviously Shenzhen is the only city where Waishengren (外省人) can make it big in politics and business, hence the respect for the use of the language. That's my understanding. I could be wrong. Quote
LaVandez Posted February 28, 2008 at 04:28 AM Report Posted February 28, 2008 at 04:28 AM From my brief time in Shenzhen I woud say that it's Guandonghua - Putonghua - Sichuanhua for business. Sichuanhua is not so surprising once you realize that many came and are still coming for the work. At least this is among the business people that I know. Most of the old guard are in international trade or Hong Kong expats, Putonghua gets you up on the new schoolers, Sichuanhua on a good portion of the workforce and some midle managers who are originally from places within Sichuan. Quote
zlmjoybee Posted June 19, 2008 at 03:42 PM Report Posted June 19, 2008 at 03:42 PM When I lived there it was more like "fulan." I remember arriving in what I took to be Hunan, Huaihua and being welcomed to "Fulan Fuaifua!" Most confusing. Lots of Southerners make this kind of mistake,including me.It is because we don't distinguish H and F, Z and ZH, L and N in our dialects. When my friends hear me say 飞机 as Huiji, they usually laugh their ass off and me too. hahaha, hilarious... I taught in a university there, and 1st year students, recruited locally, couldn't understand each other for the first few weeks. Lots of note passing! Are you teaching in SZU? If yes,maybe you used to be one of my foreign teachers. Why do you leave Shenzhen for Liuzhou? Quote
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