Adrianna Tan2d ago

In many Chinese families it’s pretty common for people to talk to each other in completely different languages. My New York aunt speaks to me in Mandarin / Hokkien. She speaks to her husband in Toishanese. They speak Cantonese to other people. We all sort of understand each other when we are speaking different languages, but respond in our own language. From time to time we might dip into another language to illustrate a point.

My grandma used to call this ‘chicken and duck talk’

#Languages #Chinese

Show threadMuss das sein.2d ago
@skinnylatte I learned that Cantonese and Mandarin are two different languages where most speakers of one do not understand the other? Is this wrong or are you impressively multilingual?
Show threadAdrianna Tan2d ago
@jnfrd it is mutually unintelligible but many Cantonese speakers do Mandarin lessons now due to language imperialism and also economic activity. Mandarin speakers mostly don’t understand Cantonese at all unless they study it somehow
Show threadMuss das sein.

@skinnylatte Ahh. Totally forgot the need to learn the one language to bind them all. :/

I managed hello, and thank you in Mandarin. I tried two beer but the baar keeper looked rather confused. Next time I’ll practice for the beer.

Apr 5 at 2:23pmWeb