oh one other thing I forgot to mention, Taiwan, and Hong Kong developed different cultures during the time of the cultural revolution. If your really familiar with Taiwan or if you want to build rapport there you need to learn Hokkien as well.
Then again, it is all about the purpose of learning at the end of the day. It's like me wanting to learn spanish when I have no one to practice it with, just because there are 300 odd million people that speak it. For me, Mandarin I would only speak with my martial arts master whom I havent seen in years.
There is less purpose for me to learn mandarin than there is to learn cantonese, because I dont have a pure mandarin speaking fiance. I am engaged into a cantonese family. So I need to learn the language of my environment, of course they all understand mandarin as well, but what do they use more?
I still get asked here and there why I can speak Canto and not mandarin, well I can practice canto more, my fiance's mom has almost every canto movie ever made on dvd (exaggeration to express a point), I prefer the accent, I want my kid to learn the language of his mothers side, the humor is unbelievably unique, and overall I just prefer it.
Reading in the cantonese pronunciation just seems right also, plus now that I can read standard Chinese I understand how spoken mandarin works. So when I watch mandarin tv shows, I understand whats going on, and can make out the different pronunciation so learning mandarin just becomes so easy. I can even make basic conversation in mandarin now, just because i listen to Taiwanese music, and read the lyrics.
OK i have stopped, you have my rant. You know my purpose for learning, now make your own purpose, or go and learn 國語!
Then again, it is all about the purpose of learning at the end of the day. It's like me wanting to learn spanish when I have no one to practice it with, just because there are 300 odd million people that speak it. For me, Mandarin I would only speak with my martial arts master whom I havent seen in years.
There is less purpose for me to learn mandarin than there is to learn cantonese, because I dont have a pure mandarin speaking fiance. I am engaged into a cantonese family. So I need to learn the language of my environment, of course they all understand mandarin as well, but what do they use more?
I still get asked here and there why I can speak Canto and not mandarin, well I can practice canto more, my fiance's mom has almost every canto movie ever made on dvd (exaggeration to express a point), I prefer the accent, I want my kid to learn the language of his mothers side, the humor is unbelievably unique, and overall I just prefer it.
Reading in the cantonese pronunciation just seems right also, plus now that I can read standard Chinese I understand how spoken mandarin works. So when I watch mandarin tv shows, I understand whats going on, and can make out the different pronunciation so learning mandarin just becomes so easy. I can even make basic conversation in mandarin now, just because i listen to Taiwanese music, and read the lyrics.
OK i have stopped, you have my rant. You know my purpose for learning, now make your own purpose, or go and learn 國語!