Canto 101

While I can speak Mandarin, Cantonese is something I have never tried before. The written characters are completely the same (unless it’s in traditional, which is a whole different topic). However, the pronunciation could not be more different. The tones are completely different and it is impossible to comprehend if you spoke one language but not the other. Before I came to Hong Kong, my family, which only speaks Mandarin and English, told me that just use English in Hong Kong, everyone is fluent. It will get you farther than if you used Mandarin.

While in most places, it is sufficiently enough to just speak English, the one thing I use frequently that English is not always sufficient for is cabs. While some cab drivers understand English, there have been many times where I got into a cab and the cab driver has no idea where I am trying to go. Especially since the fact that the "q" sound is very different in Chinese/Canto, cab drivers have no idea where Mosque Street is. In Chinese, it is “魔罗庙街“。 However, the cab drivers usually cannot understand Mandarin Chinese either. Therefore, I consulted one of my colleagues for the catonese pronounciation. It is pronounced as "moll law miu kai". Definitely WAY different than the mandarin pronounciation, which is "muo lo miao jie". When I tried to repeat it several times, my friend bursted out in laughing. I figured it's because I'm doing it so sadly, however, he just said "actually, you speak cantonese with an american accent. if you were on the phone, i would have never guessed you were chinese." Even though I do not speak mandarin with an accent (I usually get applauded for my ability to speak mandarin without an accent), it seems that the dominating accent in my repertoire is american.