China, How it is - Language and Spitting
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- Chinese isn't just Chinese, I explain the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese and also tell you about the spitting which still plagues China to this day. (I didn't mention it in the video, but just about every province has its own local dialect, however they all still understand Mandarin).
I laughed at the beginning of the video when you talked about wasting those fruits. The truth is those tiny oranges, called 金桔(jin ju), are never intended for eating. I've actually tried one when I was young and it tasted absolutely awful. They are only used as a festival decoration because 桔 sounds similar to 吉(ji), which means good luck.
I grew up in Shenzhen and I really love your videos. Thank you for the effort. Keep them coming!
谢谢你的解释。从你这里，我也第1次才知道了这个知识。
I like your programs. You seem to be very objective, up to the point and honest. I agree with you 90% of what you said.
Keep up the good work.
Spitting was acceptable in the West up to the late 19th century. Spittoons were a common appliance around public areas. Spitting became unacceptable as it was understood that TB etc was present in the spit. I wonder if there are a lot of such diseases in China?? In the West, it took a concerted Public Health crusade to bring spitting under control.
one day you need to fix your aspect ratio
Everyone seems to spit, except the younger generation as far as I can see, in Ningbo Zhenhai. In Ningbo city it is rare. No idea why as my nose seems dryer than usual. Even older ladies on electric scooters stop and spit on the road. It is a bit weird and hard to avoid. As you say, it does not seem to be something you can ignore as it is often someone in front of you or close by. I thought it would not bother me but the sound never mellows in my ears. Otherwise there is little that is problematic other than an attitude that roads are not for pedestrians so get off them asap although drivers will stop and there is no sense of real danger if you are vigilant. By and large, apart from a few oddballs, most people respond to manners and a smile. Conflict is avoided and proper behavior is respected. However,, in the small town where I live, we are very high profile and you have to show exemplary behaviour. Children stare but the parents laugh when we say hello to them and smile. Yesterday, a young teen-age girl could not stop staring at me and it was pretty obvious. She seemed shocked and entranced while her friend was not interested. I am 183 cm but tower above the locals, who seem small in comparison. Some people are quite petite and delicate. Not being able to speak chinese is a real limiter so time to learn some!
@@stewartbone4236 and this has to do with his aspect ratio how?
goodfilmful Comment placement mistake. Apologies. I agree with your view- aspect ratio not good but he tries different stuff.
British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English (in your case South African English are all "dialects" of English. They may differ somewhat in lexicon and accent but are, for the most part, mutually intelligible. However, Mandarin and Cantonese are two different languages. They are mutually unintelligible for speakers who have not learned the other language. The unifying factor for China is the written language which is the same though read with different pronunciation according to the language of the local area. Speakers of Mandarin will usually have an accent related to the local area they live in. For example, native Cantonese speakers will have a Cantonese accent when they speak Mandarin. People from the Beijing area are known for their characteristic Beijing accent. Many Chinese people will speak 2 or 3 different languages. They will speak the local language of the area where they live and Putong Hua (Common Speech) because they have learned it in school as the required National Language. They may also speak the language of their grandparents because grandparents are generally the first care givers of young children in Chinese society.
As far as spitting is concerned, it should be noted that Chinese people consider spit to be "dirty." The idea of swallowing one's spit (as most Westerners do) is considered disgusting. Spit is dirty and should therefore be expelled from the body. Spitting in public is not considered impolite in China. This is a cultural difference and it is not necessarily unhygienic unless the person has a contagious disease. I know it bothers a lot of foreigners (me included) but it's just one of those annoying cultural differences.
sunbin64 设汉语是一种语言，那么广东话粤语仅仅是其中的一种方言而已。就像温州话，闽南话上海话，河南话，四川话，一样，大家说快一点，都相互听不懂。所以为了全国交流方便，有了普通话，也就是普遍通用话。粤语也就是因为香港的关系在世界知名度高一点而已，所以香港人比较自嗨把它独立称作一种语言，好像高其他方言一等一样。
想請問英語，德語，法語和西班牙語之間的關係是語言還是方言? 醒醒吧，普通話和廣州話的共通點只是大家都是用漢字，就像歐洲的語言，都是用拉丁字，但拼字和語法不同。粵語有自己的文法，甚至有自己口語的漢字，完全可以我手寫我口，一個被滿人混雜了幾百年的語言，敢稱自己作現代漢語已笑大天下人的口
When I was in high school, Many of my classmates were Hakka and they spoke Hakka in break time( Of course they have to spoke Mandarin when they were having class) But most of them think Mandarin and Hakka ( so as to Cantonese and Hokkien etc) are dialects under one language called Chinese, because they think that written form are superior than spoken form, as a Chinese proverb says:"口说无凭，立字为据(literacy meaning: Only what is written down is valid, but what only are spoken not.)'', so as long as there are a well-accepted and formal written form in two linguistic varieties, then both of them should be called as dialects of one specific language. From this case can we see that what really matter is how we can define a linguistic varieties as a "language", "dialect" or just "accent"? By orally mutually intelligible or by a formal written form shared between two linguistic varieties?
PS: In ancient China, formal written form is 文言文(Which nobody use it in spoken language), whose vocabulary and grammar are significantly different from any spoken languages of any area of ancient China. so Chinese language have a lasting tradition that grammar and vocabulary between spoken and written form differ significantly, which must be take into consideration when we discuss whether Chinese a certain one language or a group of languages)
Dear father in law came to stay for 6 months, he is 79 so set in his ways and the first important rule of staying in England WAS NO SPITTING ANYWHERE. Mao, Mao as no is pronounced. We got there during the first month. It took 2 months to reduce the salt in the food as I kept translating with my wife that during the summer of 2012 we would not get 35 degrees and 90% humidity in Plymouth.
I joined in with the spitting doing the preparation quite loud to much amusement when in China!!!
David.
Serpentza, your videos are quite helpful and insightful. Thank you again.
A couple of minor corrections if you don't mind. 1. China has 26 provinces. 2. Cantonese or Guangdonghua is generally speaking in whole Canton or Guangdong province, not just Guangzhou, which is the capitol city of Guangzhou province. Keep up the good work!
Don't forget that Cantonese is not only the main language of Hong Kong but it is also the language of the Chinese dispersion in particular in Southeast Asia like Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia etc. as well as the diaspora in North America and Europe. 77 million speak Cantonese. Someone said that Cantonese and Mandarin are about 80% different??? whereas Shanghai-ese which I think is Wu is about 60% similar to Mandarin. Mandarin name in English comes from the Mandarin Palace Guards in Beijing so Putuguo means the common language.
It's strange and fun to see what foreigners think about the local cultures.
good videos, keep it up!
5:07 cat in the background by the way :D
They also speak Cantonese in part of Guangxi Autonomous Region
Although the two words "pu-tong" means "ordinary", but taken individually, pu means "wide-spread", and tong means "through" in the sense of either traffic or communication. So instead of saying putonghua as "normal language", I would re-translate that as "wide-spread understood language", which is a more interesting translation, in my opinion.
LOL. I believe you. You don't have to capture people spitting on cam to prove your point! You forgot to increase your volume when you spoke Cantonese, lol. They always sound like they are fighting even though they are not! Haha! Great series!
Actually In China, there are 8 main Han Chinese Languages(汉语), Mandarin is the official language, and it is wildly spoke in Northern China, and In the South there are another 7 Han Chinese Languages,which we now call it dialect, Yue/Cantonese(粤语) is one of it, the others will be Min(闽语)，Hakka（客家语），Wu/Shanghainese (吴语)，Xiang(湘语) etc. All of them are form from different period of Chinese History, when northern Han Chinese Settles down to South in different Dynasties because of different reasons. But the written system are the same, even whole east Asia in history used be using same written system by using Chinese Characters. Always imagine China is like a whole Europe, Han Chinese language are just like Latin Language, there are similarities in speak.
Great comment, learned a lot. Thanks!
+eeadd asa 四川话算什么。LOL
Very interesting videos. Found your channel about a month ago and having been going through all your old videos watching them. As an American who has never been outside of the states it is an interesting look inside a country we don't see from a foreigner perspective very often. Thanks for sharing and you have made me a lot more interested in visiting China hopefully one day.
One of the first videos with no Tsingtao Beer. Your main sponsor will not be happy :-))))
For the writing part, it's something like American English vs British English. You may notice some differences, but comprehension shouldn't be a problem. What does make it a bit complicated is, there are 2 writing systems for Chinese (traditional vs simplified). The relationship between characters in those 2 systems is strict one-on-one mapping, and many characters remain identical across the two systems. People who are familiar with one can usually learn the other quite easily.
Dude, you said a mouthful [no pun intended]. Back in 1974, I stayed with a Chinese family based out of Sudbury, Ontario, on Grade 5/6 class exchange program. The mother in this family hocked loogies about every 5 minutes, especially while I was eating at their dinner table. It was God awful. That was almost 40 years ago, and it's still with me.
really enjoyed the videos, I lived in China for 4 years and I can definitely relate. The tones of Mandarin and Cantonese pose quite a challenge as well, Mandarin having the four tones and Cantonese having something like seven tones.
Really glad I found your channel, I'm very interested in other cultures and have watched probably only a small percentage of your videos, but luckily youtube has the whole catalog for me. :) Hope all is well
I love this country and I have been enjoying living in the UK. However I weren't born here therefore it has been a learning journey for me as well. I hope you are enjoying the different culture there and have not been put off by the negative things.
This is one of the most, best, well explained vid about this topic LOL.
Yes, I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese, and having lived in Australia for a decade now, i met some Vietnamese people and Vietnamese sound is very similar to Cantonese, I just realized both sound very feminine and thus become more fond of Mandarin, which i think is a more masculine language, just like feminine Romance language of Italian and French language as oppose to masculine Germanic language.
This is a fantastically entertaining series, really enjoying it! Please keep 'em coming!
I almost spit my drink out when you said Hum sup lo (pervert). You don't really need to use the "ahh" at the end, the ahh doesn't really mean anything.. I always use it at the end if I am asking a question, it's kind of my question mark in Cantonese but then I speak Toisan which is very similar to Cantonese.
Not only Hong Kong and Guangzhou, in Macau they also speak Cantonese. Everytime you seem to forget that Macau has the same status as Hong Kong, albeit small, it exists...
I didn't say he wasn't doing a good job. He is. But Macau is really close to Hong kong and Shenzhen, and I also wasn't born in China....
Liliana Silva before 1840, yes, they were guangzhou province. that is 2 little points.
Not really, mate, Macau was splitted up from Qing in 1557. but there was no doubt that we proud of having Cantonese as our mother language.
I've been studying Mandarin for about 2 years.
Just learn Mandarin first, after that you can learn any other spoken language similar to Mandarin (I don't want to say dialect) to a fair extent. Mandarin is also the easiest one to learn I think but I also think that there's no need to discriminate languages in China after all, the similarities might make it a bit easier to learn.
I love seeing palm trees! Great video, thank you 🙏
4:07 When you said people just spitting all over the place randomly I started imagining that as a theme for a screensaver. 😆
I have generalized a lot, but if you study about the History behind the Chinese language, you will find much more information behind all this.
Cantonese is also spoken in GuangXi province. My wife is from there and her family speaks it in fact my mother in law only speaks Cantonese.
You forget Macau where Cantonese is one of the official languages as well as Malaysia where Cantonese is a very commonly spoken dialect.
You fail to mention that all of China didn't actually originally speak Mandarin/Putonghua, in fact Cantonese was more widely spoken before Mandarin was made the official langauge.
I've been learning Mandarin for four or five years now, and had the opportunity to meet some native speakers. What I noticed is that the native Chinese people (they were from Beijing) spoke a lot faster and added 儿 to a lot of their words (一点儿). Do the people in other areas say 儿 as much?
great video on the language issue! when i 1st became interested in learning "chinese" a few people had told me i should learn cantonese because its "cool, trendy", etc. later i found out that if i'd chosen that, id only be able to communicate in those southern areas and the rest of china wouldnt understand me. so like most people i decided to learn mandarin. or i should say im still learning it haha.
thats the point he didnt mention in the vedio. Even if maderine is the official language in China, since China is pretty big and people from different province have their own dialect. So if u speak manderine to them they will understand you. But, their maderine will mix some of their own dialect which make different from other province. The provinces which are close to each other will have the similar dialects.
Shenzhen used to be dominant in speaking cantonese, but during the last 20 odd years people from all over china have migrated there so putonghua have become dominant but you can hear it sometimes but not often. Even people who can speak it don't often because everyone understands it. Even my uncle in shenzhen speaks putonghua! But HK people do know putonghua, its only old people that dont, cantonese, putonghua and english are taught in all hk schools.
Cantonese is also spoken a lot among the overseas Chinese, who probably emigrated from Guangdong.
the way you speak cantonese is very interesting
Also, to expand on what Akibatai00 said, before the whole language system in China was simplified and Putonghua was adopted, everything was in Traditional Chinese (Taiwan still uses Traditional Chinese). Therefore in fact, everything you said like 好吃 (Hào chī) can also be said in Cantonese. Cantonese is more flexible in the fact that there is many more ways of expression, due to the fact that Mandarin is a Simplified version, and thus easier to learn compared to Cantonese.
Mandarin Chinese is a normal language of the whole country. But the point which most people don't know is different cities may have their own language in China, and it's totally different, like Shanghai, Fujian. That's why Chinese people usually use Mandarin to communicate and it means normal language.
I truly appreciate these videos
The vote for which accent should be the official language of China was not held in Maozedong period, but a lot earlier, when Sun Yat-sen started a rebellious government in Guangdong. Since the centre of that government was in Guangdong, it's reasonable that the vote for cantonese was higher.
The spitting that I saw in China haunted me. I will be unlikely to travel there in the future largely due to spitting alone. It's a real shame. It's taboo to spit in most other places in E Asia.
Wow. Incredible how right on the other side of the line they speak something entirely different. Sort of reminds me of Spain and Portugal.
Therefore the reason Singapore bans chewing gum. There are not a lot of gums on Canada's sidewalks... well at least not in Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton, but I saw a lot in Los Angeles.
I don't want to be picky here, But people from Fujian Provence do not primarily speak PuTong Hua. Their local dialect is MingNan Yu, About how do Taiwanese speak PuTong Hua is because the whole idea of creating a national wide common speaking language is from the KMT(Chinese Nationalist Party), which later(1948-1949) ran off to Taiwan. Also the simplified Chinese character thing, is unsurprisingly, KMT's handy work.
I'm learning cantonese because I love the sound of it much better than mandarin. also want to go back to Hk for a while and Macau so it would be useful there. May learn some Mandarin as well once my Cantonese improves though because it would be good to visit the mainland again to see how it has changed since 1995 when I was last there
Chinese mainland and taiwan speak mandarin with different accents and also some of words/phrases are slightly diverted in these two areas.
Hi, I’m a Hongkonger and I’m not familiar in mandarin. I have an experience that I met a mainlander in Hong Kong. He can’t speak Cantonese as well so we communicate in English. It’s funny!
"普通话" should be translated as "common language". It it a language to be commonly spoken by the people so that everybody can understand each other. There are just so many dialects in China and thus a common language is needed.
You will never hear Cantonese in Guangzhou. It's a migrant city, too. However, I live in Foshan, which is close to Guangzhou and you hear it EVERYWHERE.
Depending upon exactly how you count Spanish can be the most widely spoken language in the world. See, it is the language in which most people are native. And as a second language English may be in most widespread use, but one NGO has other demands for classifying it as "good enough for use" than the next. 3000 words for one, 5000 words vocabulary for the other. So if you demand a high level of fluency, it is Spanish by about 0,5% margin.
Nice video. After all, China is still a developing country and people's awareness and standards of hygiene still needs to improve. I am Chinese that lives in the UK. Although UK is a developed country non-hygienic behaviour still can be seen a lot, i.e. spitting, gum spitting. When I first got here I noticed that there are a lot of white spots on the road and I thought they were the marks of pigeons' droppings but they are actually the gums that people spitted and pressed on the roads, lol.
How about Hakka-wah & Toisan-wah?
i think the trees you saw were for sale not leaving there for waste
Do you know most difficult language spoken in China.That's my hometown,Wenzhou,it's very similar to the language spoken in China thousands years ago.
what make everyone wanna hurl lugies in the first place? are they allergic to milk or something, or do they smoke heavily... ?
Hi, I like your video, but how do you upload these videos? TH-cam has been blocked in mainland China.
Maybe in one or your videos you can talk about weather. Something I would like to know is how cold does it usually get in Shanghai and a few other cities, during winter.
more lauguage stuff please, I love it!
Cantonese is more like ancient Chinese and remains some pronunciation of ancient Chinese. Mandarin is much different from ancient Chinese and contains some ways which come from northern ethnic group like Mongol and Manchu.
And this kind of non-han stuff, Han people have to study it, and live with it, how ridiculous.
Actually, there are a lot of people speak cantonese in GuangXi and Hainan province, and people in Guangdong of course they speak cantonese (except for the ones come from other provinces) or dialects of cantonese, not only in Hong Kong and Canton
your VIDEO seems clear than before
He misunderstood the meaning of "普通话" (Putong Hua), "普"(Pu) here in Chinese means widespread or universal or general. “通”(tong) here in Chinese means without any barrier ,which can be extended in meaning as understandable. So these two characters put together to form a adjective as widely spread. "话" in Chinese means language. Therefore, the exact meaning of "普通话" is a widely spread language or widely spoken language which means you can communicate with people everywhere inside China via it.
I find it interesting that you are asked if you can speak 普通话， in my experience everyone has always referenced Chinese as 汉语. Maybe this is a regional difference?
09:36 Ham sup lo = "salty wet man" = horny man.
Generally, adding "aaahhh" is like asking a question, or putting a question mark at the end.
Lay ho maaaahhhh = how you doin'?
Puthonga is Mandarin - it is just a standardised Mandarin because a Mandarin speaker from Henan cannot understand a Mandarin speaker from Hubei. Compare it to BBC English if you will, it is still the same language as Scottish and Jamaican English.
I love China i will go back there again. But spiting is only thing i hate. Yes i love Chinese food but could not eat. When u hear lot of spitting. I been to Beijing and Hunan providence take a night train went my friend home town. If u go big and modern cities like Shen Zhen its really ok.
I'm not sure but the language vote was after the 1911 revolution but I could be wrong, not after 1949.
There are 8 Chinese languages. Mandarin and Cantonese are just two of them.
I dont think there's just 8 if the language classified by the people can understand that language or not. You know, in some area located in southern china, people cant understand each other though they from villiages very close.
I appreciate this simple subject. Somehow I had the misconception Cantonese was language of Taiwan. Now I know better.
Great vid, keep them coming!
Actually, "Putong" means "can be widely known"(Pu means 'widely'-- '普遍' and Tong means 'can be known and used'--'通用') when it is in "Putonghua", but not normally or ordinarily......
It makes me dizzy when I watch it... The camera is always shaking
Is it like another language entirely, or just slightly different? Like English vs. Gaelic.
What is the best way for an American to learn Mandarin? I have been to Shenzhen and Guangzhou several times but I do not speak the language. I am looking to come back to Shenzhen and Guangzhou to find, talk with and, hopefully, do business with handbag manufacturers and ladies accessories/jewelry manufacturers. Any suggestions? as far as places to look, contacts, areas or provinces?
Thanks
Would you be able to tell me what other dialects there are besides 儿话音?
I'm Chinese. Mandarin is a official language in China and many people can't understand Cantonese at all~
when you said you can hear your neighbor spitting, did you mean through the wall? I hope the walls in China aren't that flimsy
haha it sounds like your tones in Cantonese are better than Mandarin!;)
Great videoes!
im sure the air quality sucks causing flem buildup , winston clears his throat alot
True. After 10 days there, my throat hurts and I get lots of phlegm...
Amazing vid....China looks stunning
yes that is true, its not just UK! its across many parts of europe
There are 56 official languages in China. Mandarin is the official, everyone should know how to speak that. Cantonese is more of a regional dialect in Canton and Hongkong. I belive Mandarin has about 4 sounds while cantonese has around 7.
So it's like the difference between European English and American English then?
If you need to spit then you probably should. Indoors, outdoors, with your in-laws, the world is fair game! I believe it comes from traditional chinese medicine teaching that its unhealthy to swallow phlegm and as a result none of them do. It seems to be much less prevalent in the younger generation though. But listen guys this is just a completely normal thing to do for them. There may well be things that we do that drive them up the wall too, but if we are coming to their country then the very least we can do is try and be accepting of their culture. I don't like it much either, but as long as they aren't being anti-social then I don't think we have a right to complain about it
+Liu Ben But it is anti social- it spreads disease. Fair enough, if you're in a field in the countryside then spitting is natural... but in a city with 10 million people?
The trouble is that it can contain germs. If you're sick, it spreads that around. It's convenient, but it can spread germs.
yes I hate ppl spitting on street even in the mall very gross
be careful when you speak English on China street
some could understand and punch you on the face when you say something bad about China or Chinese
but very nice to see you video, haven't step in Mainland almost 10 years
good education for Chinese oversea, i speak both Chinese, learn Cantonese is so easy to me just watch TV, am sure not easy for others
learn a language around teen or early are the best time, after teenage difficult
yes you are right the meaning of Putonghua is far from interesting(the Putong here is more like "universally or commonly used" rather than the Putong you mentioned with the "ordinary" meaning ), this is due to the fact that minority ethic groups and people speaking other Chinese dialects were very reluctant to learn the Mandarin Chinese language in early days, the name Putonghua is chosen to make non-Mandarin speakers more comfortable to accept the official language by hiding the ethic origin
I always wondered if there were many variation of Language in China. Can you speak or understand Cantonese and Mandarin? Spitting in America is something the kids do, but no adult will do it in public or around people. It is considered Uncouth and show signs of ill breeding. My son likes to spit and I tell him to stop, because it reflects my parenting to others. Spitting at ones feet can be considered an insult and result in fights, in the states. I personally think it is Gross. Randy
serpentza, you have to know that Cantonese people are proud of their language and history. Guangdong people may know how to speak Mandarin, but they discriminate Mandarin-speaking people from other provinces. Guangxi also speak Cantonese.
And what is the meaning for Cantonese?
Your vidoes are excellent! Thanks!
Actually Mandarin is not very popular in Guangdong. I'm from Shanghai. Back in 80s and 90s when China started to open up to the world, Guangdong was like the pioneer or the window of China because it's near Hongkong. Millions of people from inland fleet to Guangdong for opportunities. Before they actually come to Guangdong, all of them would take Cantonese Language Class because Cantonese is so different from Mandarin and Guangdong people almost don't understand Mandarin.
Hey man, did you study Mandarin before moving to China, or did you pick the language up while living there? Also, how long did it take you to become fairly proficient in the language?
Thanks!
Languages in China are not just Cantonese and Manderin. there are people speaking Mogolian, obeviously, at inner-mogolia, and Tebetan as well, at Tebet, and people speaking some sort of language close to Turkish in the muslim region like Xin Jiang, which are all completely defferent from normal Chinese. they are not even close to those two major languages. but they can pretty much speak Manderin any way.
Ha! So true! Though, it was surprising for me to find out the amount of people who spits everywhere in the SF Bay area ( I go to school there ) while thinking that only mainland Chinese do it.
What was this video filmed with?
Mandarin and Cantonese are different langauges not dialects. They speak many differnt languages in china, and have many different dialects
Is the spitting from the pollution? I can see how people would have sinus congestion and lung problems