I am a foreigner that has learned to speak/read/write Cantonese. I cannot understand most "formal written Chinese", also known as "standard written Chinese" as

I am a foreigner that has learned to speak/read/write Cantonese. I cannot understand most "formal written Chinese", also known as "standard written Chinese" as the characters used are almost entirely the same ones used in Mandarin. Indeed “佢喺邊度呀" (written/spoken Canto) is very different than "他在哪裡嗎" Mandarin/formal Chinese written form. I can read entire books or comics written in vernacular Canto but can't understand even basic stories written in "formal Chinese". The languages are mutually unintelligible and it's wild how different they can be.