• SuperSleuth@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Mandarin and Cantonese are essentially two different languages that happen to share the same characters. Someone from Honduras would be able to understand 99.9% of what a Spaniard says. If you only speak Mandarin you wouldn’t be able to understand Cantonese at all.

    • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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      2 days ago

      It’s wild when you look into how many different languages are “Chinese”. It’s like if someone were to say that someone from Germany spoke “European”.

      • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        In contrast though, I’m close to native in German, yet have a hard time with Austro-Bavarian dialects and can’t understand Schwiizerdütsch at all. The amount of times I have to say “Hochdeutsch, bitte…”

    • Elaine@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Can confirm, I am learning Mandarin but every time I hear Cantonese I can barely make heads or tails of it.