Different languages in China
dylanprout
August 11, 2008, 02:41 PM posted in General DiscussionNi3 hao3
I am a newbie and I know that mandarin isn't the main language/dialect throughout china so Im intrested in finding out where i'll be able to use mandarin and how many of trhe chinese people speak it, eg. would I be able to go to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inner Mongolia or Tibet and get by with knowledge of Mandarin but no knowlege of any oher chineese dialects.
sushan
August 11, 2008, 04:45 PMYeah, you'll be fine with Mandarin if you are sightseeing. If you are interviewing rural people for your thesis you might run into trouble understanding, if not being understood by, the locals.
daizi
August 11, 2008, 09:43 PMIf you know Mandarin and English, you'll be all set to travel anywhere in China.
Mandarin is spoken by 700-900 million souls, with varying degrees of intelligibility from a Mandarin learner's perspective.
After Mandarin (普通话 Pǔtōnghuà or 国语 Guóyǔ), the next largest language spoken in China is English (英语Yīngyǔ) followed by 吴语 (Wúyǔ), the language of Shanghai and its environs.
xiaohu
August 11, 2008, 04:02 PMDylanprout,
Actually Mandarin, the language taught on this website IS in fact the main dialect of China spoken by the majority of the Chinese people. When you watch the Beijing Olympics and hear President Hu Jin Tao give a speech, it's in Mandarin Chinese. When you watch movies like Hero (directed by the man who directed the Olympic opening ceremony), the movie is in Mandarin.
So don't worry, utilizing this website to learn Chinese will give you all the tools you need to communicate with every Chinese person you meet!
That includes people from Inner Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet who (the majority) have some working knowledge of Mandarin.
You're gonna love Chinesepod!
Xiao Hu