My Hong Kong friends insist that learning Cantonese is quite easy if one already knows Mandarin. Of course I am well aware that the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese is a lot greater than between various Romance languages for example. Has anyone here attempted to learn Cantonese after Mandarin? I am interested in learning Cantonese in the near future, but would like to know what I am letting myself in for first!
Steve did this. I would be interested to know what he thinks about the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese in relation to the differences between the romance languages, or say between English and German.
Steve did this. I would be interested to know what he thinks about the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese in relation to the differences between the romance languages, or say between English and German.
I’ve not tried to learn Cantonese, but I lived in Guangzhou for a year. It seems as if the majority of Chinese people from outside of Guangdong province (who are living in Guangdong) don’t try to learn it if they don’t have to – at least the ones I met. The ones that do usually learn it well – often for practical reasons, usually having to do with relationships. For Mandarin speakers, it seems like they can learn it in about 2-3 years without any real study but just everyday application. In other words, if you have Mandarin already, you can pick it up. I’ve been told one problem is the large influx of slang/colloquial expression which creates a barrier for those who know Mandarin well but are living outside of Guangdong or HK.
Interesting. I have also just come back from Guangdong. I could not understand much Cantonese at all. A mere handful of words. The Mandarin speakers I met who came from other provinces to live and work in Guangdong seemed to have a passive understanding of Cantonese, just from having spent so much time there.
Yes, I agree with you friend to some extend. Learning Cantonese is not that easy because there are lots of slang and 9 tones.
I have also come back from Guangzhou lol
I’ve learned some Cantonese after Mandarin. It’s not nearly as good as my Mandarin because I don’t really need it and so don’t spend the time, but I can do alright in Hong Kong (they speak English there anyway, lol).
I would absolutely say it helps to know Mandarin! A large part of your main vocabulary will be the same as in Mandarin. You just have to learn the Cantonese way to pronounce the same words. The grammar is largely the same as well, with a few unique structures you also find in other dialects.
Living in Shanghai, I’ve begun to learn a little Shanghainese too and I’d say knowing Mandarin also helps with that, but that the difference is even greater than with Cantonese, particularly in the grammar. Most things will be about the same in Cantonese, but a lot more will be structured differently in Shanghainese. That’s my observation so far.
Tones can be anywhere between 6-10 depending on who you ask. I just try to get it approximately right and don’t worry about it. Never had trouble being understood. Just observe and imitate the sound and rhythm of the language and you’ll get along fine. Cantonese is definitely a fun one! Love the way it feels to speak! Plus all the hilarious slang and wordplay jokes that just can’t translate in other languages. It’s a lot of fun. Go for it!
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Of course Mandarin is a big help in learning Cantonese. Once you can speak Mandarin, you have most of the vocabulary for Cantonese. You just have to learn how to pronounce these words in Cantonese, and of course learn a few of the colloquial words that only exists in Cantonese.
I think that six tones is enough in Cantonese and I agree with LFJ that we are not going to get them right all the time anyway so that we are best to just imitate what we hear.
In a way Cantonese is closer to Mandarin than the romance languages are to each other, in my view. This is because so much of the written language is identical, it is the same language. The languages are mutually unintelligible at first, but very quickly you get the hang of how the pronunciation changes. Colloquial Cantonese needs to be learned but if you are with people you will soon pick it up.
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“The languages are mutually unintelligible at first, but very quickly you get the hang of how the pronunciation changes.”
True and that doesn’t take as much as one might think. Often times I find I can guess the pronunciation of a word in Cantonese based on common pronunciation changes of syllables between Mandarin and Cantonese and be right about it (perhaps not the tone though, but I’ll learn that when I actually look it up).
In the reverse, it makes listening comprehension much easier because you can often tell what Mandarin word something corresponds to without having yet learned the Cantonese word.
As with any new language learning endeavor, you have to put the time in to be able to speak it, but knowing Mandarin absolutely gives you a huge leg up.
I didn’t know they were so close together. It is interesting how uniform the languages would be over such a large area of the world in Asia, and so much variability in the languages over a similar sized area of the world in Europe.
Thanks for your reply Steve. I was not aware Mandarin and Cantonese are so similar. I certainly did not pick up much from my short time speaking Mandarin in Guangdong.