What is the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese? - Chinese

Hi Oscar! Excellent question--and this is one that a lot of people don't understand because both languages are spoken in China and some people just use the umbrella term "Chinese" to refer to either one or both, which isn't accurate. The truth is that Mandarin and Cantonese are two distinct languages, with a lot of similarities. Cantonese and Chinese LOOK the same, so people who can understand only either Mandarin or Cantonese can communicate with each other by writing because they use the same written characters with a few exceptions. However, these characters are pronounced differently. Also, grammar structure is completely different as well. You may know that Mandarin uses four "tones" for each character--that is, each character can be said aloud in four distinct tones and therefore has four distinct meanings. Cantonese uses up to 9! So it can be much more complicated to learn. Last but not least, Mandarin is said to be the official language of the People's Republic of China, including Taiwan. Schools, universities, radio and television in mainland China use Mandarin. You won't hear much Cantonese other than in cities in southern China or Hong Kong and Macau. So if you're thinking of studying one over the other, go for Mandarin! It's more common and definitely the language of the future!

Hi Oscar--one more thing I forgot to add. I studied Mandarin for four years, and even lived in China for a while, so I understand how important it is to study it the right way to actually put it to use! I think it all depends on what you want to use it for, and how well you ultimately want to speak it. You can certainly learn Mandarin phonetically, using the transliterated version of Mandarin which is called "Pinyin" and never once have to look at a Chinese character. However, if you really want to understand the beauty of Mandarin so you reach that point where things just click for you and you're able to go to your city's Chinatown and understand what you read or make sense of Chinese restaurant menus or even use it for business purposes, then you absolutely should learn how to write, at least at a basic level. Mandarin is hard enough as it is, so you might as well take that extra step and learn the language 100%.