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1. The majority of Cantonese speakers belong to the Han ethnic group. 2. "Mandarin" is not synonymous with "汉语." Standard Mandarin (普通话/现代标准汉语/國語 in Taiwan) an
by aragonite 3y ago
1. The majority of Cantonese speakers belong to the Han ethnic group.
2. "Mandarin" is not synonymous with "汉语." Standard Mandarin (普通话/现代标准汉语/國語 in Taiwan) and Standard Cantonese (粤语/广东话) represent two main varieties of the Chinese language, or "汉语". [1]
3. It's unsurprising that the Mandarin speakers you spoke with refer to their language as "Chinese", considering they were addressing a foreigner and Standard Mandarin is the official language of China. However, in interactions between Mandarin and Cantonese speakers, it's common to ask, "Do you speak Cantonese/Mandarin?"
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language