Reply to S/O what''s the point of studying Mandarin?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

People don't speak the written language.[/quote]

Well, I don't think you are a native speaker, are you? I am. I can tell you for the majority of Chinese dialect, the difference is only in pronunciation. The vocabulary is the same, the grammar is the same, the difference in pronunciation minor. There is a reason it is called dialect. And the reason why China didn't develop multiple languages as Europe did. Well, it is because we share the same written language.[/quote]

So somebody who speaks only Cantonese can understand somebody who speaks only Mandarin, when they speak to each other, without using any writing?[/quote]

They will not understand each other if speaking. I know Taiwanese lawyers who when working on deals in Hong Kong (all local lawyers here - I'm not talking about expats) speak in English. The contracts are in English but so are all the communications in and outside of work. Why? Because the Taiwanese grew up speaking Mandarin and Taiwanese then got JDs and LLMs in the US; the HK lawyers grew up with Cantonese but were educated in English in HK and UK universities. Their only option to communicate is English. [/quote]

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