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Taiwan has a different spoken language and culture than Hong Kong. If I were going to move away from Hong Kong I'd prefer an international, primarily English sp

Taiwan has a different spoken language and culture than Hong Kong. If I were going to move away from Hong Kong I'd prefer an international, primarily English speaking city like London or Toronto.

jaaron 6y ago
While I agree most in Hong Kong would probably prefer to move to other large cities like Vancouver or Sydney, it's not due to language. Having lived in both for many years, most folks in Hong Kong wouldn't have any language trouble in Taiwan, at least not up north towards Taipei.
exabrial 6y ago
That area of the world is also quite... racist... might be the word, but it's not quite equivalent. After traveling asia for work, it's quite a different form but the same principle. The more positive way to say it is there's is an extraordinary amount of identity wrapped up in your ethnicity and birth country. A HKer is not likely to be welcome in TW.
- robjan 6y ago
  Nonsense. HKers and TW people welcome each other with open arms.
imrehg 6y ago
Wouldn't be so sure about it, having lived in Taiwan for many years, a lot of my friends there people leaving HK and setting up a new base in Taiwan. The writing is similar (both HK and Taiwan are far from China's simplified Chinese), the spoken language has a lot of commonalities (bunch of dialects in Taiwan that are closer), and the culture & mindset is very close. Not totally a surprise as Taiwan has a lot of dissidents who left China in earlier conflicts, for quite a while back. So yeah, from personal experience, Hongkongers fit right in coming to Taiwan.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
  Agreed. From what I've seen, Taiwanese people are very welcoming of Hongkongers especially in the current political climate. An example would be that of Lam Wing-kee.[1] [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52425350 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52425350
- z2 6y ago
  Yes and no on the language argument. Written Chinese, sure, but Taiwan's Fuzhou/Hokchew-based dialects are far from the Cantonese of HK and neighboring Guangdong/_Canton_. These dialects branched apart very early, about 2000 years ago, and saying they are more similar vs mandarin is kind of like saying that French and Spanish are much closer than French and Italian because Basque is closer to French than standard Italian. Most commonalities in pronunciation are due to both dialects preserving some older Chinese pronunciations, but overall pronunciation and vernacular word choice are very, very different.

Taiwan has a different spoken language and culture than Hong Kong. If I were going to move away from Hong Kong I'd prefer an international, primarily English speaking city like London or Toronto.

jaaron 6y ago

While I agree most in Hong Kong would probably prefer to move to other large cities like Vancouver or Sydney, it's not due to language. Having lived in both for many years, most folks in Hong Kong wouldn't have any language trouble in Taiwan, at least not up north towards Taipei.

exabrial 6y ago

That area of the world is also quite... racist... might be the word, but it's not quite equivalent. After traveling asia for work, it's quite a different form but the same principle. The more positive way to say it is there's is an extraordinary amount of identity wrapped up in your ethnicity and birth country. A HKer is not likely to be welcome in TW.

robjan 6y ago
Nonsense. HKers and TW people welcome each other with open arms.

imrehg 6y ago

Wouldn't be so sure about it, having lived in Taiwan for many years, a lot of my friends there people leaving HK and setting up a new base in Taiwan. The writing is similar (both HK and Taiwan are far from China's simplified Chinese), the spoken language has a lot of commonalities (bunch of dialects in Taiwan that are closer), and the culture & mindset is very close. Not totally a surprise as Taiwan has a lot of dissidents who left China in earlier conflicts, for quite a while back. So yeah, from personal experience, Hongkongers fit right in coming to Taiwan.

bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
Agreed. From what I've seen, Taiwanese people are very welcoming of Hongkongers especially in the current political climate. An example would be that of Lam Wing-kee.[1] [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52425350 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52425350
z2 6y ago
Yes and no on the language argument. Written Chinese, sure, but Taiwan's Fuzhou/Hokchew-based dialects are far from the Cantonese of HK and neighboring Guangdong/_Canton_. These dialects branched apart very early, about 2000 years ago, and saying they are more similar vs mandarin is kind of like saying that French and Spanish are much closer than French and Italian because Basque is closer to French than standard Italian. Most commonalities in pronunciation are due to both dialects preserving some older Chinese pronunciations, but overall pronunciation and vernacular word choice are very, very different.