Well Cantonese & Mandarin are right off the bat harder to learn because they have different tones to distinguish words that might otherwise be homonyms. We use tone to make a question out of a statement, they use tone to distinguish one word from another LOL
Mandarin has rising & falling tones, I think Cantonese has 5 different tones that are just on a range between high and low, and probably rising & falling tones as well.
I guess he is tall, dunno though about the name.
I guess cause English is more of an international language, people expect to have to learn it sometime, I guess China didn't have all that many fluent western speakers of mandarin in their midst. My friend did mission work in bangladesh for 2 years, and became fluent in the language, now she works in some social capacity in toronto, and I think she surprises the "locals" with her ability to wear a sari and speak bangla. ha ha ha. Heck, I get disoriented watching my brother speak Mandarin to his GF.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 02:02 pm (UTC)Mandarin has rising & falling tones, I think Cantonese has 5 different tones that are just on a range between high and low, and probably rising & falling tones as well.
I guess he is tall, dunno though about the name.
I guess cause English is more of an international language, people expect to have to learn it sometime, I guess China didn't have all that many fluent western speakers of mandarin in their midst. My friend did mission work in bangladesh for 2 years, and became fluent in the language, now she works in some social capacity in toronto, and I think she surprises the "locals" with her ability to wear a sari and speak bangla. ha ha ha. Heck, I get disoriented watching my brother speak Mandarin to his GF.