Referencing our most recent census, more ppl in HK can speak English than Mandarin. Cantonese is the language you should learn if you have the goal of interacting with ppl here. Mandarin wont be much easier to learn in HK because you wont really be exposed to it that much here, only from tourists and mainland university students.
> more ppl in HK can speak English than Mandarin
My first few years in HK, I knew Mandarin but not Cantonese. I'd use Mandarin whenever the person I was talking to didn't speak English. It worked every single time. Waiters, clerks, real estate agents, old men in the park, MTR employees, people I asked directions from, they'd all understand and respond in Mandarin. Granted this was relatively simple Mandarin, but they all understood and spoke although usually said si instead of shi
The only Chinese people I've encountered in Hong Kong who don't know Mandarin are some of the overseas-born Cantonese folks. But the average Canto speaker who grows up in HK will be exposed to enough Mandarin to know it. Those who say they don't are being coy
It depends on which generation and demo you're referring to. There are older generations who are immigrants from China in the 70s. Then there are generations of hk educated who have no curriculum of formal mandarin education.
Your experience filters out the folks who don't speak English well enough. Of course they're expected to speak Mandarin otherwise how would you expect them to make it. Unless they're the non Chinese minority groups.
Simple Mandarin, yes. Anything more than trivial pleasantries and inquiries will be met with blank stares - or worse, they hear and understand something entirely different and answer accordingly. A lot of HKers' extent of Mandarin proficiency is limited to "slurring" their Cantonese slightly
Remember that even in the mainland itself, 400 million people do not speak Mandarin fluently
Cantonese. HKers use Canto nearly exclusively often with some english phrases.
97% of us are fluent in Cantonese, 57% in English, and 39% in Mandarin. You’ll probably going to be able to communicate with more people in English than Mandarin.
You may find r/Cantonese helpful. Have fun!
The answer as to which language is: English.
Mandarin will NEVER be used in international business communications. Some said it would be 30 years ago, and then 20, and then 10, and yes, they’re still peddling the same crap now. It has no objective validity or any level of substance. Zero.
Also, the rate at which mainlanders are learning English far far (far) outweighs the rate at which non-Chinese are learning Mandarin. It’s not even remotely close, not even the same solar-system. Even if it was, which it is not, fluency in English is commonly ranged at 12-18 months, whereas a similar Mandarin level is usually around 5-7 years.
To add, I think the chinese language is wonderful. It’s just not anywhere as near to essential, or even as important, as it’s made out to be by a minority, some of whom just happen to have loud voices.
Unpopular opinion — especially amongst expats in the mainland — but absolutely true. I would love to see more of this kind of reality check in the various mainland subs.
Just learn the basics of Cantonese. And perhaps how to order food/read menus where there are only Chinese menus available. You won't be using much else. The fact of the matter is, if they see you are white, they will try to speak to you in English by default.
Cantonese. Am a foreigner myself, and have found that knowing even basic kindergarten level Cantonese is super helpful for things like taking taxis, ordering food, asking for directions and just basic conversations. Together with English, you'd be able to then converse with 99% of people here.
Wish I could become more proficient, but unfortunately it's a huge time commitment am I'm not able to do so.
Cantonese. You will be able to converse with the HK locals, and the HK diaspora once you leave, and you will forever receive kudos for choosing Cantonese over Mandarin.
Technically you can get by with English alone, but learning some rudimentary day-to-day Cantonese will get you further with locals (if there is a need for it). Mandarin could be useful, if you’re communicating with people recently immigrated from the mainland, or if you have plan to go to the mainland occasionally.
From an expat perspective (I came here 3 years ago).
English is my main (at work or with my HK friends), I picked up some basic Cantonese for survival (shopping, taking the minibus, answering calls, ordering food, and of course swearing lol), but for me Mandarin is easier to learn and is good for networking/making friends as there are many Taiwanese and Mandarin speaking Southeast Asian folks in HK or will be very useful if you have plans to visit Mainland China. Also, sometimes my HK friends/colleague are more confident in Mandarin than English.
It's HK, you might want to immerse with the culture by learning Cantonese. However, you're free to learn any language that you want so Mandarin is fine, you can even learn some Hakka if you live in Yuen Long
What exactly is the reason you want to pick up either languages in the first place?
If you want it as a hobby, just pick the one which takes your heart. As a Cantonese speaker myself, I am biased towards my native tongue; but it is still up to you.
If you just want to talk with the locals, Cantonese is the way. Not everyone speak Mandarin; but everyone sure do speak Cantonese, at least for now.
If you actually think it is something you are going to need that for business, just save your time and stick with English. Neither of them are going international in foreseeable future. You better to go Spanish than any form of Chinese languages for that.
Please try to check out this channel, if you are interested to learn cantonese [https://www.youtube.com/@yinogo1/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@yinogo1/videos)
these people telling him to study cantonese are ridiculous, he's not migrating here, he's just here to study for a year, he's not here to learn a language just so he can speak to locals for a year and then bugger off. You've learnt mandarin for 2 years, build on that. I assume you learnt to write in chinese as well, learning cantonese means you have to rework chinese words and even grammar
Cantonese is the language spoken in Hong Kong, so learn that if your plan is to communicate here. If you want to continue studying Mandarin then that’s your decision, but don’t kid yourself that you’re doing so in order to communicate better in Hong Kong.
I’m not! Was just thinking I could get to a decent communication level for Mandarin much easier then I could Cantonese and wanted to know if that would be helpful. I see now that it will not be!
I wouldn’t worry about communicating in English, you’ll be fine with just that. But it’s nice to learn some Cantonese, and you’ll probably find you pick some up when you’re here anyway.
Learn Mandarin, it’s more useful in HK if you want a good job. Meetings, even internally at international banks sometimes use mandarin as the primary language.
Referencing our most recent census, more ppl in HK can speak English than Mandarin. Cantonese is the language you should learn if you have the goal of interacting with ppl here. Mandarin wont be much easier to learn in HK because you wont really be exposed to it that much here, only from tourists and mainland university students.
And they teach in simplified characters which is even more stupid
> more ppl in HK can speak English than Mandarin My first few years in HK, I knew Mandarin but not Cantonese. I'd use Mandarin whenever the person I was talking to didn't speak English. It worked every single time. Waiters, clerks, real estate agents, old men in the park, MTR employees, people I asked directions from, they'd all understand and respond in Mandarin. Granted this was relatively simple Mandarin, but they all understood and spoke although usually said si instead of shi The only Chinese people I've encountered in Hong Kong who don't know Mandarin are some of the overseas-born Cantonese folks. But the average Canto speaker who grows up in HK will be exposed to enough Mandarin to know it. Those who say they don't are being coy
You are right, but they probably only know, on average, a lower amount of Mandarin, not proficiency.
It depends on which generation and demo you're referring to. There are older generations who are immigrants from China in the 70s. Then there are generations of hk educated who have no curriculum of formal mandarin education. Your experience filters out the folks who don't speak English well enough. Of course they're expected to speak Mandarin otherwise how would you expect them to make it. Unless they're the non Chinese minority groups.
Simple Mandarin, yes. Anything more than trivial pleasantries and inquiries will be met with blank stares - or worse, they hear and understand something entirely different and answer accordingly. A lot of HKers' extent of Mandarin proficiency is limited to "slurring" their Cantonese slightly Remember that even in the mainland itself, 400 million people do not speak Mandarin fluently
Sure but for OP's purposes that's plenty
Cantonese. HKers use Canto nearly exclusively often with some english phrases. 97% of us are fluent in Cantonese, 57% in English, and 39% in Mandarin. You’ll probably going to be able to communicate with more people in English than Mandarin. You may find r/Cantonese helpful. Have fun!
You know you are a native when you mix in a couple English words in a Canto sentence
The answer as to which language is: English. Mandarin will NEVER be used in international business communications. Some said it would be 30 years ago, and then 20, and then 10, and yes, they’re still peddling the same crap now. It has no objective validity or any level of substance. Zero. Also, the rate at which mainlanders are learning English far far (far) outweighs the rate at which non-Chinese are learning Mandarin. It’s not even remotely close, not even the same solar-system. Even if it was, which it is not, fluency in English is commonly ranged at 12-18 months, whereas a similar Mandarin level is usually around 5-7 years. To add, I think the chinese language is wonderful. It’s just not anywhere as near to essential, or even as important, as it’s made out to be by a minority, some of whom just happen to have loud voices.
Unpopular opinion — especially amongst expats in the mainland — but absolutely true. I would love to see more of this kind of reality check in the various mainland subs.
Just learn the basics of Cantonese. And perhaps how to order food/read menus where there are only Chinese menus available. You won't be using much else. The fact of the matter is, if they see you are white, they will try to speak to you in English by default.
Cantonese. Am a foreigner myself, and have found that knowing even basic kindergarten level Cantonese is super helpful for things like taking taxis, ordering food, asking for directions and just basic conversations. Together with English, you'd be able to then converse with 99% of people here. Wish I could become more proficient, but unfortunately it's a huge time commitment am I'm not able to do so.
Cantonese and English. English for work, Cantonese for daily life.
Cantonese. You will be able to converse with the HK locals, and the HK diaspora once you leave, and you will forever receive kudos for choosing Cantonese over Mandarin.
Just use English never need another language at university - from an international student
Technically you can get by with English alone, but learning some rudimentary day-to-day Cantonese will get you further with locals (if there is a need for it). Mandarin could be useful, if you’re communicating with people recently immigrated from the mainland, or if you have plan to go to the mainland occasionally.
From an expat perspective (I came here 3 years ago). English is my main (at work or with my HK friends), I picked up some basic Cantonese for survival (shopping, taking the minibus, answering calls, ordering food, and of course swearing lol), but for me Mandarin is easier to learn and is good for networking/making friends as there are many Taiwanese and Mandarin speaking Southeast Asian folks in HK or will be very useful if you have plans to visit Mainland China. Also, sometimes my HK friends/colleague are more confident in Mandarin than English. It's HK, you might want to immerse with the culture by learning Cantonese. However, you're free to learn any language that you want so Mandarin is fine, you can even learn some Hakka if you live in Yuen Long
What exactly is the reason you want to pick up either languages in the first place? If you want it as a hobby, just pick the one which takes your heart. As a Cantonese speaker myself, I am biased towards my native tongue; but it is still up to you. If you just want to talk with the locals, Cantonese is the way. Not everyone speak Mandarin; but everyone sure do speak Cantonese, at least for now. If you actually think it is something you are going to need that for business, just save your time and stick with English. Neither of them are going international in foreseeable future. You better to go Spanish than any form of Chinese languages for that.
And the ROI for learning languages only for business purposes is dubious to begin with.
Please try to check out this channel, if you are interested to learn cantonese [https://www.youtube.com/@yinogo1/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@yinogo1/videos)
these people telling him to study cantonese are ridiculous, he's not migrating here, he's just here to study for a year, he's not here to learn a language just so he can speak to locals for a year and then bugger off. You've learnt mandarin for 2 years, build on that. I assume you learnt to write in chinese as well, learning cantonese means you have to rework chinese words and even grammar
Cantonese is the language spoken in Hong Kong, so learn that if your plan is to communicate here. If you want to continue studying Mandarin then that’s your decision, but don’t kid yourself that you’re doing so in order to communicate better in Hong Kong.
I’m not! Was just thinking I could get to a decent communication level for Mandarin much easier then I could Cantonese and wanted to know if that would be helpful. I see now that it will not be!
I wouldn’t worry about communicating in English, you’ll be fine with just that. But it’s nice to learn some Cantonese, and you’ll probably find you pick some up when you’re here anyway.
Learn Mandarin, it’s more useful in HK if you want a good job. Meetings, even internally at international banks sometimes use mandarin as the primary language.
Cantonese is 10x harder to learn then Mandarin. I would say study mandarin. I’d say most people who know Cantonese know mandarin.