- (speaking foreign language)
- Types of Chinese people.
Mandarin versus Cantonese.
Now a lot of people, especially North America,
they don't know the difference.
They think all the Chinese are the same.
There are actually many, many different types of Chinese.
Now within mainland China itself,
there are so many different provinces
and different types of language.
Not everybody speaks Mandarin.
Even if they speak Mandarin they have different types
of accents, and if you're very, very good
you'll be able to know the difference.
Now for Cantonese, mostly it's from Hong Kong
or from Guangzhou right?
So we speak Cantonese.
I'm lucky cause my mom is from Taiwan,
she's speak Mandarin and my dad is from Hong Kong.
So I'm fortunate enough to speak both language style.
Jennie, your parents are from mainland China,
and so you speak Mandarin.
- [Jennie] Mandarin only.
Because we've been married for a number of years now,
you also learned Cantonese from me.
Now Vic, you speak Cantonese and you're parents
are from Hong Kong, right?
- That's right.
- And you came over around 1997.
- It was actually in the late 80s.
- 80s.
- So my parents wanted to immigrate to Canada,
because they had some fears and worries about
the 1997 handover. - Yes.
- When China was to get Hong Kong back
from British ruling.
So that's really a major reason why there was
an influx of immigration from Hong Kong during those years.
- In terms of both language what do think is the difference?
First of all it sounds very different,
and sometimes Cantonese...
My Mandarin speaking friends, when I speak Cantonese
to other Cantonese people, they think we're arguing.
- (laughs)
- They think we're yelling each other,
because we speak so fast and they feel like we're arguing.
Actually we're not. - Yes.
- It's just the way that we speak.
What do you think is the difference?
- Definitely first the pronunciation.
- Pronunciation.
In Mandarin you have how many, is it four?
- Only four.
- [Jennie] I think Cantonese has nine?
- [Victoria] Nine tones.
- [Dan] Nine tones, yes.
- Yeah, that's a huge difference.
I think another thing is, I think Cantonese also has a
look like a lot more like, you know, the Chinese characters.
They create their own kind of--
- Slang.
- Yeah, yeah so it's so different.
I remember like when I was young, like in China,
I saw a Hong Kong newspaper.
I couldn't understand what it says on the newspaper.
- You can understand the words,
but you don't know what they say.
- I never saw this words before like what is that?
(laughs) Yeah, it's really different.
- And also...
What do you think, what about?
- Yeah it's interesting because officially
Cantonese it's a dialect. - Yes.
- It's not really like an official language
compared to Mandarin, where it is the official language
of the Chinese, right.
So because it's a dialect there's a lot of flexibility,
and a lot of new words and new slangs and languages
are created on the fly. - Yes.
- Depending on what's trending.
Maybe a new movie comes out and a very popular actress
said something cool, and now the entire city of Hong Kong
ends up trending that word.
Right, and that's not uncommon for new phrases to come out.
- And also I think in terms of the written words,
in mainland China, they have to simplify Chinese.
In Taiwan and Hong Kong they use the traditional Chinese,
which is more complicated,
more complex right? - [Jennie] Yes.
- The word itself, so they're a little bit different.
What about in terms of culture?
Taiwan, Hong Kong versus mainland China,
what do you see as the main difference?
- I think first thing it's because
Hong Kong used to belong to British,
so the culture is totally different
compared to maybe Hong Kong's people
like they were born like 10 years or 20 years ago.
And then they would have that feeling like
we're just Hong Kong, we don't belong to anyone.
We're just our own self, our own country sort of thing.
- Although they've only got seven, eight million people.
- (laughs)
- And I'm from Hong Kong, so I get it.
- (laughs) Yeah, and also another thing is
I think because Hong Kong the economy relief
was way earlier compared to China.
So people in Hong Kong they make more money
and then the city is more developed compared to China,
20 years ago, which is, you know, still just a little city
right compared to Hong Kong.
So that's why for mainland China's people see
Hong Kong as this kind of glorious, pretty city
that people look up to.
- [Dan] More developed at that time.
- Yes, yes.
- Yeah definitely, and when we talk
about the language aspect of it,
my parents they're in their early 70s now.
They're generation, actually very few people from Hong Kong
back then, spoke Mandarin.
And even if you try to speak Mandarin to my parents now
they're very sloppy.
They're not going to understand
when you're speaking to them.
And then things start to shift, after the handover,
the Chinese government really wanted to go in
and started to transform the school system.
- Yeah.
- So there's been a big shift in how much--
- Making Mandarin part of their training,
part of their education.
- Exactly.
They really wanted to be more dominant as a language,
and as a part of their taking over Hong Kong as a city
as well right.
It's definitely a different time, right.
Back then my parents when they were working in Hong Kong,
being a capitalist city under the British colony,
as a British colony, a lot of things, the economy,
everything just flourished.
And I remember when I was a child growing up,
we learned English as a second language.
We actually didn't learn Mandarin.
So my first language was Cantonese,
and my second was English, and it wasn't even Mandarin.
- Yes.
- So that's the interesting part of it.
- And also I can see before 1997,
a wave of Chinese immigrants, Hong Kong immigrants,
coming to North America
because they're afraid of the handover.
And afterwards, because they think
it's going to be horrible,
and then later on it turns out actually it's not as bad.
So a bunch of them actually move back,
and now it's kind of like a little bit rocky, right?
Now there's also now moving back here as well.
It's kind of interesting.
Now with Cantonese and Mandarin,
with Taiwanese I find that from Taiwan, Taiwanese
culture wise I feel out of all three
Taiwanese is the most friendly from my experience.
Just the way that they are, the culture.
And also because they were
when Japan, you know, when they had their war and everything
it was a number of years.
So you can see a lot of the Japanese influence.
- [Jennie] Yes, yes.
- As well in Taiwan.
So I find it a little bit interesting.
So when you communicate with different types of Chinese
don't necessarily say hey you speak
(speaking foreign language) while they speak Cantonese.
You know they kind of understand what you're talking about,
but that's not the language.
So the polite thing to do would be to ask.
Where are from? Are you from Hong Kong?
Are you from mainland China? What language do you speak?
Do you speak Cantonese? Do you speak Mandarin?
Just good to find out.
But there is a concern I think now,
people who speak Cantonese they're afraid
that the language might kind of slowly disappear,
because everything now is about Mandarin.
What do you think?
- I wouldn't think so.
I think in the city of Guangzhou--
- Yeah, which is a lot of people.
- They speak Cantonese.
Yeah. - Yeah.
- I don't feel like...
And then because we have so many Cantonese movies,
our songs, I think we can still keep that.
- I think what's also is very interesting
it's a little place like Hong Kong with a few million people
that this little city have created
or produced so many
trends. - trends.
- [Dan] Celebrities. - [Jennie] Yes.
- Like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee,
a lot of these actors and actress.
A lot of action movies,
it came from one little city like that.
I find that's pretty interesting.
A lot of wealthy individual, wealthy family.
Lee family all that also came from there,
just a small little city.
Any changes that you see in terms of old language,
is that an advantage now, you know both language.
Do you think it's an advantage to know both?
- I do feel that way.
If you are trying to sell to Chinese for sure,
if you can speak both languages it will definitely help.
And then I think also if you are a Caucasian
and then you can speak just a little bit of Chinese,
I think it would really impress them.
- Yes.
- Definitely because of the trust issue,
if you can speak a little bit of their native language,
they're just...
You automatically have bonus points, right off the bat.
So you want that edge, you want that advantage
right out of the gate.
- And I know for Caucasian learning Mandarin,
which is way easier to learning Cantonese,
and also it's more commonly used.
And I remember we saw a guy,
he was working in the mall,
working in a booth, working for Microsoft.
And Microsoft has a booth, and at the time
it was just a new service, just released.
And there's this Caucasian guy,
I remember clearly cause we were shopping.
There's this Chinese couple they're playing around
with the service, and suddenly this Caucasian young guy
just jumped in and say, how can I help you in Mandarin,
and they were liked shocked.
- Fluently.
- Yeah, fluently.
Whoa, how can you speak Chinese?
Holy shit.
And he's like, well I've been in Beijing for two years,
I lived there and this and that.
Immediately closed a sale.
- (laughs)
- Immediately.
So I can see that.
I think Chinese people, when you just even know
a few simple words, some lines,
it's a always a sign of you respect the culture.
- Yes.
- You don't need to speak fluently,
but if you speak a little bit.
They feel like, oh you're least taking you're time,
you're trying.
It adds a bonus.
So you're doing this with Chinese,
just learn some basic language,
thank you, good bye, how are you, do you like this,
like simple basic things I think it will help you a lot.
Now along with the smart business man
you need in America they're sending their kids
to learn Mandarin.
Mark Zuckerberg is learning Mandarin.
There's something to be said about that.
I would say Mark is a pretty, pretty smart guy.
So maybe you want to learn it,
or maybe you want your kids to learn it.
Why not have that advantage?
Cause maybe in the future, even though they may not
be thinking of going to China or doing business
with the Chinese, well why not have the language.
When you learn a new language,
I believe also you learn the culture.
You can acquire
just a new world of knowledge.
And I'm fortunate, I'm able to read Chinese,
both Chinese and English, and I read both types of books,
and I learn a lot both from both.
So if you're thinking of learning Mandarin,
or even think of learning Cantonese comment below,
and maybe I will post a couple links of where to...
What some of the tricks we're suppose to learn these
languages as well.
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