Mandarin to Cantonese

Mandarin to Cantonese
Dec 17, 2007 14:59
MOONDOLLARS Points: Join Date: Nov 21, 2007 Status: offline	hi all -- i was wondering if cantonese is easy to learn if you are already a mandarin heritage speaker? i know it's not necessary to learn cantonese, but if i can already speak mandarin, why not take that advantage and run with it? do you know what i mean? if i am watching a cantonese movie and not looking at the subtitles, i can understand some words they are saying - maybe 40%. if not, i use words that i can understand and figure out what they're saying. it seems easy. does anyone have any exprience learning cantonese when you already knew mandarin? - moondollars faithvine.com

Dec 17, 2007 14:59

MOONDOLLARS
Points:
Join Date: Nov 21, 2007
Status: offline

hi all --

i was wondering if cantonese is easy to learn if you are already a mandarin heritage speaker? i know it's not necessary to learn cantonese, but if i can already speak mandarin, why not take that advantage and run with it? do you know what i mean?

if i am watching a cantonese movie and not looking at the subtitles, i can understand some words they are saying - maybe 40%. if not, i use words that i can understand and figure out what they're saying. it seems easy. does anyone have any exprience learning cantonese when you already knew mandarin?

- moondollars
faithvine.com

Dec 17, 2007 19:51	#1
GHOST Points: Join Date: Oct 12, 2007 Status: Offline	Hi Angela It's much easier to learn Cantonese if you know Mandarin! A lot of the grammar is the same, although there are more tones. Currently, Cantonese is becoming very popular with young people so, yeah, maybe you should learn some! I know a lot of Mandarin speakers who pick up Cantonese very quickly so I guess it should be the same the other way around.

Dec 19, 2007 20:39

MOONDOLLARS
Points:
Join Date: Nov 21, 2007
Status: Offline

hey ghost --

i've actually tried learning cantonese and it was harder than i anticipated. i thought it was easier to go from cantonese to mandarin, because cantonese has more tones than mandarin.

people i know who (native speakers from taiwan) can speak both say it's easy to learn cantonese if you know mandarin, but i just don't see how.

i'm not sure if cantonese would be necessary to learn if you already know mandarin, though, i've heard it's useful to know shanghainese since top officials and many other people speak in shanghainese in shanghai. i guess it'd be good to secretly understand in a business negotiation, ha.

-moondollars

Apr 13, 2013 10:41	#3
GUEST32212	It is easier. I only speak a little Mandarin, and I know that it is. Just compare the word for green in both dialects and you'll understand! They're practically the same, with only one being sung more!

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