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Putonghua in Malaysia

  • 11-08-2004 9:54pm
    #1
    elivsvonchiaing
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,575 ✭✭✭


    I've a little (quite bad) Mandarin. I will be visiting Malaysia later this year and I know most Chinese there speak Cantonese. I only did about 20 Mandarin lessons and my teacher taught Beijing pronunciations: e.g. hong-leeooh-dehhhhrr (traffic light). Should I just stick to pidgin bahassa? Or is there some hope I could make myself understood?


Comments

  • #2
    davros
    Closed Accounts Posts: 857 ✭✭✭davros


    elivsvonchiaing wrote:
    Should I just stick to pidgin bahassa? Or is there some hope I could make myself understood?
    Neighbouring Singapore has long had a campaign to encourage Mandarin as the prevalent form of Chinese. I have never heard of anything similar in Malaysia. Cantonese (or other common languages/dialects like Hakka) and Mandarin are sufficiently different to be mutually unintelligible.

    English works fine in Malaysia though.


  • #3
    Lantis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 259 ✭✭Lantis


    Hmm, I have a friend who lives in Malaysia, and he's fluent in English, Mandarin and Malaysian. Apparently he's never had to speak Cantonese there his whole life.


  • #4
    elivsvonchiaing
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,575 ✭✭✭elivsvonchiaing


    Me too. (friend who speaks Mandarin). But Cantonese is his mother tongue - just can't reach the guy cos he works in mainly in Shanghai. (might get him in a couple of weeks).

    I think the question I should have asked is how much Mandarin is thought in schools in Malaysia? How well is it understood in cities, in small towns - maybe by state?


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