4 ms·

China is diverse linguistically? You mean to say I can encounter some one in a major metro in China and they won't speak mainland Mandarin?

gexla 6y ago
I have never been to China. I'm from the US and I only speak English. Currently I'm living in the Philippines though. I imagine China is a lot like the Philippines. There are a lot of dialects and then one national language. The national language here is Tagalog, but English is also a national language. You can expect that almost everyone speaks the local dialect unless they are from another region. You can expect that most people speak conversational English. Some have a difficult time speaking Tagalog and may revert to English if Tagalog is the only common language among the speakers. People feel confident speaking the languages they use regularly. For regions outside the Tagalog regions, that's mostly the regional dialect. Most street signs are in English. Local TV is mostly Tagalog but there are English stations as well. Everyone is unique, but in many cases people have no reason to speak Tagalog. They may hear it, but hearing is different than speaking. In any case, you can't make the same assumptions nation-wide as you can with people in the US. In the Philippines, you could do pretty good with marketing in English. Kids are taught English in school and it's possible the regional dialects could quickly disappear in the future. If you're going to learn only one language in the Philippines, it should be English. Other countries may not have this same unity on language. Each country is different. In the US, you have (Wikipedia 2019 numbers) nearly 330 million people who you can make solid assumptions for in terms of language. Most of those people are English as a daily driver if not a first language. It's hard to beat the combination of one of the most widely spoken languages and one of the largest countries by population. I don't know what other language has that many "first language" speakers in a single country. Mandarin could be, but even within the Mandarin language there are lots of dialects (one caveat is that the writing system is the same for all.) So, it's difficult to determine what the actual numbers are. According to a quick Google search, a quarter of the Chinese population doesn't speak the common tongue at all. An honorable mention might be Brazil, a country with a population of over 200 million and all-in on Portuguese.
osdiab 6y ago
While the Chinese government has forced the majority of young people to learn Mandarin in schools, even just taking a 1 hour train ride from Shanghai to Hangzhou, both cities have local languages that are mutually unintelligible. Elderly people, especially in the countryside but also in the cities occasionally, often don't know how to speak Mandarin at all. But if you mostly hang out with urban youth you should be fine entirely with Mandarin.
_-___________-_ 6y ago
Unless you only speak to younger people in tier-1 cities, China is enormously diverse linguistically.
- liuyong 6y ago
  I can confirm that, the situation may improve in the next generation.
  - kome 6y ago
    i am not sure if improve is the right word here :) i believe losing linguistic variety is almost a tragedy.
  - _-___________-_ 6y ago
    I take issue with the word "improve" there. Whilst I definitely agree that a common language is valuable in many ways, it would be preferable if a common language could be achieved without a loss of diversity (i.e. additional to, rather than replacing, the existing languages). Different languages embody different cultures, and different ways of thinking. This diversity should be celebrated and embraced, not only as an aesthetic matter, but also because being able to communicate and think in different ways makes humans more capable.
    - liuyong 6y ago
      Agreed. But this trend looks unstoppable,to most parents in Shanghai, even English is more important than local language. Maybe what happend in 2020 would change that...
      - _-___________-_ 6y ago
        Agreed - I have a few Shanghainese friends, and they tell me their parents discourage them from learning/speaking Shanghainese, since there is no "value" in doing so. They used to push them to learn English (but maybe that will change a little now). Perhaps they have a point, but when you're young and still good at learning language, you don't have to choose one or the other. I have heard similar stories from Europeans coming from places with strong dialects / local languages, so it's not unique to China for sure.

gexla 6y ago

I have never been to China. I'm from the US and I only speak English. Currently I'm living in the Philippines though. I imagine China is a lot like the Philippines. There are a lot of dialects and then one national language. The national language here is Tagalog, but English is also a national language. You can expect that almost everyone speaks the local dialect unless they are from another region. You can expect that most people speak conversational English. Some have a difficult time speaking Tagalog and may revert to English if Tagalog is the only common language among the speakers. People feel confident speaking the languages they use regularly. For regions outside the Tagalog regions, that's mostly the regional dialect. Most street signs are in English. Local TV is mostly Tagalog but there are English stations as well. Everyone is unique, but in many cases people have no reason to speak Tagalog. They may hear it, but hearing is different than speaking. In any case, you can't make the same assumptions nation-wide as you can with people in the US. In the Philippines, you could do pretty good with marketing in English. Kids are taught English in school and it's possible the regional dialects could quickly disappear in the future. If you're going to learn only one language in the Philippines, it should be English. Other countries may not have this same unity on language. Each country is different. In the US, you have (Wikipedia 2019 numbers) nearly 330 million people who you can make solid assumptions for in terms of language. Most of those people are English as a daily driver if not a first language. It's hard to beat the combination of one of the most widely spoken languages and one of the largest countries by population. I don't know what other language has that many "first language" speakers in a single country. Mandarin could be, but even within the Mandarin language there are lots of dialects (one caveat is that the writing system is the same for all.) So, it's difficult to determine what the actual numbers are. According to a quick Google search, a quarter of the Chinese population doesn't speak the common tongue at all. An honorable mention might be Brazil, a country with a population of over 200 million and all-in on Portuguese.

osdiab 6y ago

While the Chinese government has forced the majority of young people to learn Mandarin in schools, even just taking a 1 hour train ride from Shanghai to Hangzhou, both cities have local languages that are mutually unintelligible. Elderly people, especially in the countryside but also in the cities occasionally, often don't know how to speak Mandarin at all. But if you mostly hang out with urban youth you should be fine entirely with Mandarin.

_-___________-_ 6y ago

Unless you only speak to younger people in tier-1 cities, China is enormously diverse linguistically.

liuyong 6y ago
I can confirm that, the situation may improve in the next generation.
- kome 6y ago
  i am not sure if improve is the right word here :) i believe losing linguistic variety is almost a tragedy.
- _-___________-_ 6y ago
  I take issue with the word "improve" there. Whilst I definitely agree that a common language is valuable in many ways, it would be preferable if a common language could be achieved without a loss of diversity (i.e. additional to, rather than replacing, the existing languages). Different languages embody different cultures, and different ways of thinking. This diversity should be celebrated and embraced, not only as an aesthetic matter, but also because being able to communicate and think in different ways makes humans more capable.
  - liuyong 6y ago
    Agreed. But this trend looks unstoppable,to most parents in Shanghai, even English is more important than local language. Maybe what happend in 2020 would change that...
    - _-___________-_ 6y ago
      Agreed - I have a few Shanghainese friends, and they tell me their parents discourage them from learning/speaking Shanghainese, since there is no "value" in doing so. They used to push them to learn English (but maybe that will change a little now). Perhaps they have a point, but when you're young and still good at learning language, you don't have to choose one or the other. I have heard similar stories from Europeans coming from places with strong dialects / local languages, so it's not unique to China for sure.