Can anyone tell me what's the difference between Chinese and Mandarin and, the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese?
-S
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Can anyone tell me what's the difference between Chinese and Mandarin and, the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese?
-S
Hi Sergio,
I think Mandarin is a kind of chinese, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. I'm interested in the answer too!
Hi Sergio & Veronica,
From what I've learned after doing some quotes is that Chinese has different dialects (oral language). The most common ones are Mandarin and Cantonese, being Mandarin the most widely used.
Regarding Traditional vs. Simplified Chinese, this has to do with the use of a different set of characters. Chinese in itsefl has an incredibly difficult writing system so they've decided that for printing purposes they would simplify these characters.
If you know anything more about this, please let me know!:rolleyes:
Recently I read in the paper that Mandarin is China's official language, and it's spoken by about 60% of the population.
They really have communication issues :D
I heard in India there are about 14 dialects. How amy dialects are there in the chinese Language ? :confused:
When considering English to Chinese Translation, the form of written and spoken Chinese, which should be used in communications. There are three types of Chinese in general:
1. Mandarin, written using short-form (Simplified Chinese) characters - Mainland China and Singapore
2. Mandarin, written using long-form (Traditional Chinese) characters - Taiwan
3. Cantonese, written using long-form characters - Hong Kong and overseas Chinese
leadtoasia -
If I am coordinating a translation and the client requests that it be prepared for both mainland China and the overseas Chinese market, should I ask for a quote for both Mandarin and Cantonese as you showed, or would they be able to understand if we prepped only one in either Mandarin or Cantonese?
Mandarin is China's official language, if you speak it in China, you wil be understood by most of the people.
I think just Mandarin is ok.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottJ
Is it difficult to learn Chinese? What do you think?
Well i teach english and chinese, it is difficult,weird for us pronunciation, tones,characters but is so challenging and at the end you enjoy it.Quote:
Originally Posted by mariacecilia
Try! you wonīt regret :)
if you know "Mandarin" you might get yourself understood in many places across China (specially in Beijing and Shangai), but thereīs about 52 dialects! And in many provinces people only speaks their own dialect and they donīt even know "Mandarin". Mandarin is the "official" language learned at school, but many people donīt even know about it and never use it.
People going to high school might speak the dialect at home or with their grandparents and Mandarin for "special occasions".
Itīs hard to learn, to me, pronunciation is really hard, since thereīs so many tones, if you just mispronounce something you end up saying a totally different thing!
I love it though, and I love Chinese people, Iīd say Chinese people are one of the most friendly peoples in the world. :)
Many of the languages spoken in India aren't actually dialects, but completely separate languages, and in some cases they have entirely different writing systems. Some languages, like Hindi or Punjabi, are related and belong to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family, while others, like Tamil or Telugu, belong to the Dravidian language family. A lot of Indians use one language at home and a different one at work, or in other places where they might come into contact with speakers of other languages. In many cases speakers of different languages use either Hindi or English, both of which are official, to communicate. Hindi is the most widely-spoken, but I think it's still only spoken by about half the population (as either a native or second language), maybe even less.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hebe
Mandarin or simplfied Chinese is the offical languages used across mainland China, and tradtional Chinese is the languae used in Taiwan province, Hongkong, Macao and Chinese people lived in oversea, actually simlfied means simpled the writing of many Chinese words compare to tradtional Chinese since it is adopted by China government from January 1955.
Hi leadtoasia, there is some difference between Cantonese, also called Yue Chinese, with traditional long-form characters. Even though it uses long-form Chinese, it has some specific wording and characters that are not common in traditional Chinese.Quote:
Originally Posted by leadtoasia
Also, for the case of overseas Chinese, I would say that it is way more common using simplified one than Cantonese as there are much more Chinese all around the world.
Hi analaura, in fact it is not that hard as you mentioned. There are only 4 basic tones and once you get use to it you will see that is quite simple.Quote:
Originally Posted by analaura
Itīs really worth trying and if you need someone to practice with, count with me. :cool:
Just one little thing. It is quite common to mentione just Taiwan. We no longer say Taiwan province. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by bigpond
Agree there! I have read once that if you manage to understand Chinese or German, two hardest langagues in the world, you will be capable of learning practically all languages in the world as none of them is as hard as those two. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lateralus
Hi Maria, it may be a little confussion at the beginning but eventually you will see that it is not that hard :DQuote:
Originally Posted by mariacecilia
The languange itself is really interesting and you definitely need to try the Chinese calligraphy using those little writing brushes. Itīs like art!:cool:
Just simplified Chinese will be fine as both people from Taiwan and Hong Kong can understand it. If concerning about people that may not be familiar with simplified one, then add tradicional Chinese. Cantonese is really not necessary as it is only spoken by limited people (Hong Kong practically).Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottJ
Yet another question here. While Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese are different dialects, are they different enough that speakers of one dialect can't understand speakers of the other? How different are they exactly? Is it a matter of grammar? Pronunciation?
Good question. In fact, each of the dialects can be interpreted as a complete different language. In the case of Cantonese, despite the spoken language that is different, it has its own rules as well. So both pronunciation and wording are different. In the case of grammar, I am not sure about it as I donīt speak it :rolleyes:.Quote:
Originally Posted by francot