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Cantonese vs Mandarin

Hello I would like to know which is easier to learn a comparison of the two would be useful.

Mandarin, with its four tones and simplified characters, is a helluva lot easier than Canto. And I say that as someone that lives in Hong Kong haha

Reply 2

ForestShadow

Well, Mandarin is now the official language in China and Taiwan and is used by most of the Chinese schools, colleges and universities, as well as their TV programs, movies, and radio stations. Mandarin is also one of the six official languages in the United Nations. :smile:

If your goal is to be widely understood, you should learn Mandarin because Mandarin can be understood even in Hong Kong, Macau and Canton (the main regions who still speak Cantonese)

If you really want to be able to connect with people from Hong Kong, Macau, and Canton, you can still consider learning Cantonese. But you should still know that Cantonese is often seen as more difficult. Its use of “tones” can be even more challenging to western speakers than Mandarin.

(Chinese languages are tonal, which means that inflection is used not only to convey emotion as in English, but actually to change the meaning or grammar of a sentence. Cantonese is somewhat more difficult to learn, as it has from 6 to 9 tones, each of which signify different things. Mandarin only has 4 tones. :tongue:

Reply 3

schmuur

yeah defo mandarin! Not only is there less tones and simplified characters, but it is an international language which means it will be more useful, and as more foreigners choose to learn that than cantonese, there are loads more resources to help you learn, such as on youtube and BBC