January 31 2007: Mandarin vs. Cantonese
Filed under Asian-ness & Family
My mother is currently doing an open university English course via correspondence. She spends a few evenings each week going through her textbooks and the “Learn English in ten minutes!” clippings that she gets out of the local Chinese newspaper.
During her study hours, she often enlists my help. “What’s this word mean?” she asks. (Of course, you have to imagine her asking me in Cantonese, and myself responding in the same.)
Last night was no exception.
“What’s the difference between basic and basics?” she asks.
“One’s a….” I trail off, not knowing the word in Cantonese for noun, nor the one for adjective. Undaunted, I plow on, finishing my explanation in Mandarin. “…one’s a noun, and the other’s an adjective. You would use each in such and such a situation.”
The point? I love the fact that having studied in Shanghai for a total of four months in the past two years has improved the standard of my Mandarin Chinese to beyond that of my conversational Cantonese, learnt informally at home. I feel validated, as though those hours of study and sweat I poured into my language studies are all worth it.
…maybe now I don’t need to rely on my body to communicate with Jay Chou, should I be lucky enough to meet him? *cough*stalkhim*cough*
10 Responses to “Mandarin vs. Cantonese”
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That’s great! :) I guess it’s good to know that you can learn languages better than ones you grow up speaking, so it’s not like you’ll never succeed at learning a language because you don’t already know it. That doesn’t even make sense, but that sure is my French class’s attitude. :|
If this whole comment doesn’t make sense… I’m sort of sleepy. Stayed up too late and woke up too early. :(
Jessica on January 31 2007 #
Languages! Yay! I think it’s rewarding to find you can learn a language even though you’re supposedly passed the “I’m a kid sponge who can learn any language in 6 months” age. And it’s cool that you’re mum is taking classes to learn another language, wish I had more in common with my mum.
Kat on January 31 2007 #
I’ve had some odd looks around here; I tend to start a sentence in Dutch and switch to English without noticing it, until I realize people are looking at me funny…
It’s good to know your hard work has paid off though :D
Chans on February 1 2007 #
Oooh that’s so cool how you’re so proficient with Mandarin! I only know spoken Cantonese and only colloquially at that. >_>
Belinda on February 1 2007 #
That’s awesome. I might take a Cantonese class next semester. The professor here is such a cute, little, old Chinese man.
Kimmie on February 1 2007 #
Back of, Jay is mine. When I do meet him, I’ll use sign languages :|
Reply: You wish. You. Me. Outside. Now.
Jennii on February 1 2007 #
off*
Jennii on February 1 2007 #
Haha, I can imagine that conversation… reminds me of my dad trying to explain to a doctor in Italian how sinuses can be damaged by a plane landing sharply if you have a cold/blocked nose.
He did the hand motion of a plane and everything - I almost expected him to run around with his arms outstretched.
Saying that, his Italian is extremely good - he lived in Italy for 10 years of his life, but he just forgets really easily ¬_¬
Doran on February 1 2007 #
OH MY GOODNESS. So today, I’m staring at my feed reader wondering WHERE ON EARTH did Amanda go? She hasn’t updated her blog in forever.
Ohhhh.
SO! This is Meli of the indefinitely-hiatused(>.
Meli on February 1 2007 #
^ It ate my comment!
SO! This is Meli of the indefinitely-hiatused-autumn-sky, glad that Amanda hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth!
Blah blah, there was more, I just can’t remember what. So hi :)
Meli on February 1 2007 #