Wrong!

[maddplotter]

Nope. I think there's more Mandarin than Cantonese.

Originally Posted by pistolpete
i find there are more cantonese people here than mandarin as Hong Kong was a commonwealth colony.

thats what happens when britain takes over so many different colonies. they follow you back to the more prominent colonies!



Hi pistolpete,

Population of Hong Kong in 2009 was 7, 024, 400 .

Population of communist China in mid 2008 was 1, 330, 044, 605 .

You think we have more Cantonese speaking people than Mandarin speaking people?

Mainland Chinese people are trying to escape Chinese communism.

I doubt any Cantonese speakers are trying to flee from Hong Kong with its major capitalist service economy.

I wonder if China or Hong Kong have local hockey teams. You know?...like a Hockey Night In Hong Kong.

Babe,
xoxo

You need to brush up on your history. When the Communist Chinese (Mandarin) took power in 1949, there was an exodus of non-Mandarin. Of course not everyone could leave but those who could, did leave. Because Hong Kong was a 'free' society, many could escape to the west via this British colony. This is why there is such a large Cantonese speaking population in North America. Communist China was a fiercely closed society and only in the last 20 years or more has it been slowly reforming/opening. Now the influx in Mandarin Chinese in North America is steadily rising. In fact I have seen cars go by in Toronto with the Communist China flag on them in the last 5 years. How do I know this? It is because I AM CANTONESE! Growing up in the 70's and 80's in the Atlantic provinces, the few Chinese families in our area were all CANTONESE. I knew a couple of people who were Mandarin but they had to learn Cantonese to integrate with the local Chinese population. My family arrived in Canada from Hong Kong in the mid-1960's and I was born here in 1970.

Could the Mandarin language overtake the Cantonese language? It is a possibility because they ARE the largest population on the planet who are slowly wielding their social and economical influence beyond China's borders. So many multinational companies now do business with mainland China that Mandarin/English speakers are in demand.

[Guest]

.

[shanghaishemale]

maybe！！！

[greep]

My question is, what will take over the world.

English or Mandarin?

My opinion is, English.

More mandarin speaking people are learning and desiring to learn English. Infact, one of the jobs most in demand in China are English teachers.

Where as English speaking people really aren't racing to learn Mandarin. There's no real need to.

Many more mandarin speaking people are immigrating to english speaking countries. where as not as many english speaking people are immigrating to mandarin speaking countries.

[Toronto]

it doesn't matter what the mass population speaks doesn't what really matter is who has the power and money that small elite group of people check the language ratio there.

[maddplotter]

La Future?

That was true in the past.

Today the elites don't have as much control over the language, except maybe in China.
Just look at United States, the elite speaks English and has supplanted English as the official language of the US. However it seems most of the people speak spanish.

The reason I think english will win out is that English is the language of Business and computers. You don't program in Chinese characters, you program in latin characters.

The other reason English should win out is that Los Angeles and Hollywood and the USA are truly the hearth of modern culture throughout the world. Everyone wants to be like holly wood stars and celebrities and musicians.

Although there are many native Mandarin speakers, more people still speak English over all.

In fact English and Spanish may end up number 1 & 2 with Chinese languages becoming a historical legacy.
Many say Chinese is more efficient, but most say English is the world's most expressive language.

Hard to predict the future, always in motion it is. Mandarin could dominant, based on population alone. Admin brings up a strong point about computer programming using English. French is beautiful language (I minored in it at university) but don't see it much outside of Francophone countries. In theory, English could become a language only used by elites or well educated. Think of Latin in the olden days. If the USA were no longer the economic and social superpower, who would take it's place in the generations to come? China? India? Russia? Where should I invest my money?

[Guest]

.

[Locomotion]

Well communist China has gotten a wee bit too rich and powerful, most of the things we buy (cheap crap) comes from there. Their army is huge ... if the world economy collapses and China ends up on top, we may find ourselves forced to speak some dialect of chinese. Don't like it? Now you too can become a forced organ donor!
Heil Mao TseTung!

[Guest]

.

[Guest]

.

[Toronto]

well there are almost 70000 companies in Toronto alone so i wouldn't worry too much about that.

Well they will still need English programmers.
Plus it is cool to speak English there so it will continue.

It is more likely the Chinese will take us over ecomnomically.
They are slowly buying up everything and they are migrating to other countries in record numbers.
One day we will wake up and China will own 51% of everything and have majority voting populations in many countries, especially Canada.

Some estimate there is as many as 10,000 companies in canada that are Really shell companies for the Chinese to operate undetected in our country.

Your tax bill will just come from another place.

[Raging Bob]

well there are almost 70000 companies in Toronto alone so i wouldn't worry too much about that.

All I know is I go to the Mandarin. I order Cantonese Chow Mein. I ea\t it in English. Is that wrong??

[Guest]

.