What countries speak Mandarin?

Mandarin
Location Population (2017) Standardised form
People’s Republic of China 1,379,302,771 Standard Chinese
Republic of China (Taiwan) 23,508,428 Taiwanese Mandarin
Singapore 5,888,926 Singaporean Mandarin

What is the difference between Chinese and Mandarin?

Chinese vs Mandarin – FAQ’s

Are Chinese and Mandarin the same language? Mandarin is a dialect of Chinese. Chinese is a language (Mandarin is one of the dialects of Chinese alongside Shanghainese, Cantonese and many more). With English in England you have a number of dialects – Cockney, Scouse, Geordie etc.

Is Mandarin spoken in Japan?

All of the spoken Ryukyuan languages are classified by UNESCO as endangered. In Hokkaido, there is the Ainu language, which is spoken by the Ainu people, who are the indigenous people of the island.
…
Languages of Japan
Foreign English, Russian, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin, Dutch, Bonin English

Is Mandarin only spoken in China?

Mandarin Chinese is known as 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), the “common speech,” and it has only been the official language of China since the 1930s, when the country established it as the standard dialect and began pushing to make this a reality nationwide.

What’s the hardest language to learn?

Mandarin
Mandarin

As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

Can I speak Mandarin in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong’s recent census report states that Mandarin is the second language most spoken on the island following Cantonese. Cantonese remains dominant with 96% percent. As for Mandarin, 48% of Hong Kong’s population can speak it, compared to 46% of population that can speak English.

Should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin?

It really depends on what you want to do. If you’re in Hong Kong, then by all means learn Cantonese. If you want to read Tang poetry, then learn Cantonese, because the poems still rhyme in Cantonese, where they may not in Mandarin. But if you want a generally useful language, learn Mandarin.

Is Mandarin or Cantonese more common in the US?

In New York City, Standard Mandarin Chinese was spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers as 2002, but was being used as a secondary dialect and replacing Cantonese as their lingua franca.
…
Chinese language and varieties in the United States.
Year Speakers
2000 2,022,143
2010 2,808,692
^a Foreign-born population only

Is Taiwan Mandarin or Cantonese?

Mandarin is spoken widely in Singapore and Taiwan. Cantonese, however, is spoken largely in Hong Kong, as well as in Macau and the Guangdong province, including Guangzhou.

Is Cantonese still spoken in China?

Cantonese is spoken by more than 60 million people in China, according to the state-run China Daily — on a par with Italian in terms of native speaker numbers. But some in Guangzhou worry that as young people and their parents focus on Mandarin for academic and career reasons, Cantonese may fall by the wayside.

Is Cantonese still spoken in Hong Kong?

The principal language of Hong Kong is standard Cantonese (粵語, 廣州話, 廣東話, 廣府話, 白話, 本地話), spoken by 88.9% of the population at home daily. As an official language, it is used in education, broadcasting, government administration, legislation and judiciary, as well as for daily communication.

Is Taiwanese and Mandarin the same?

Taiwanese Mandarin is a variant of Standard Mandarin. It is widely spoken in Taiwan and is also the country’s official language. … In Taiwan, their standard dialect is called 國語 (Guóyǔ, Kuo-yü), while the Standard Mandarin widely used in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is called Pǔtōnghuà (普通话).

Do Taiwanese and Chinese speak the same language?

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan are no different. While the basic spoken language is the same, Mandarin, there are slight variations in pronunciation and word use, and the written languages vary as well.

Does Taiwanese speak Chinese?

Mandarin. Mandarin Chinese has been the official language of Taiwan since 1945, and is the most spoken language in the country.

Is it hard to learn Mandarin?

Mandarin Chinese

Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons. … But writing isn’t the only difficult part of learning Mandarin. The tonal nature of the language makes speaking it very hard as well.

Is Guangdong Cantonese?

Languages and ethnicities

The majority of the province’s population is Han Chinese. Within the Han Chinese, the largest subgroup in Guangdong are the Cantonese people. Two other major groups are the Teochew people in Chaoshan and the Hakka people in Huizhou, Meizhou, Heyuan, Shaoguan and Zhanjiang.

How do you say hello in Taiwanese?

Taiwanese: Basic Survival

Let’s start at the very beginning: Hello. You can greet the Taiwanese like a local by saying lí-hó (for one person) or lín-hó for more than one. Obviously, these are “westernised” phonetic renderings, nothing like the way these words are actually written!

Is Japanese or Mandarin easier?

Chinese grammar is generally considered a lot easier to learn than Japanese. … Most varieties of Chinese other than Mandarin have more phonemes and tones – there are six or seven tones in Cantonese and eight in Taiwanese for example.

Can you learn Mandarin in 3 months?

With the right work and attitude, you can make massive progress in your Chinese learning in three months. And if having a conversation in Mandarin Chinese is your primary goal, it can be achievable with just three months of study, even if you’re starting from zero.

Which is more useful Chinese or Japanese?

Japanese is far more useful than Chinese. Fluency in Japanese can get you well paying jobs because relatively few Japanese are fluent in English. If you learn Chinese you will be in competition for jobs with a very large number of Chinese who are very fluent in English.

Is Korean easier than Chinese?

Relatively, Korean would be an easier language to learn. Thanks to its phonetic alphabet and more simplistic grammar rules, Korean is not the most challenging Asian language to learn. Chinese on the other hand is much more widely spoken. This means that finding study materials and practice partners would be easier.

Should I learn Korean or Mandarin?

It depends. If you think long-term you should learn Mandarin. It is spoken by more than 1.3 billion people worldwide, but it is way more difficult than Korean, and you will need more time and commitment. The reward, however, will be great because few non-Chinese can speak Mandarin AND a western language.

Can Japanese understand Chinese?

To cut it short, Japanese who have advanced reading skills can easily recognize Chinese phrases. They can grasp many Chinese characters but not to the extent of understanding the whole phrase.

What’s harder Japanese or Korean?

Originally Answered: Is Korean easier to learn than Japanese? Yes, Korean language is easier to learn than Japanese. To be able to read and write Japanese, you must memorize hiragana, katakana, and over 2000 Kanji (Chinese characters). Memorizing Japanese Kanji takes years of daily cramming.