1) There are three main types of Mandarin spoken - Mainland Mandarin, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Singaporean-Malaysian Mandarin. Mainland Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin differ by about 15%. 2) There are also two types of Cantonese spoken - Guangzhou Cantonese and Hong Kong Cantonese, which are very similar differing by less than 10%. 3) While Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn due to its writing system and tones, Mandarin may be easier for some like Japanese speakers who already use many Chinese characters in their own writing system.

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Get a Better Picture View before You Start it
By WaiTung KWOK (“KK”)
Many people might not have heard about the followings even for Chinese native
speakers. There are three types of Mandarin: 1) Mainland Mandarin (called Pu3 Tong1
Hua4, in Chinese Romanization System named “PinYin”; OR: Poo Toong Hwah in Wade
Giles Phonetic System of English (invented by Mr. Thomas WADE and Herbert GILES in
GuangZhou/previously Canton, China, in 1867 when Mr. Vancouver discovered
Vancouver, BC the same year), literally means “the Common Language”. It is also called
Guan1 Hua4, pronounced as Gwan Hwah in Wade-Giles, literally meaning “Official
Language” unionized and widely spread in Mainland China since 1728. 2) Another
patriotic name for is Guo2 Yu3, aka as Gwaw Yew, the National Mandarin (by Overseas
Chinese and Taiwanese) and 3) Singaporean-Malaysian Mandarin (called Hua2 Yu3
meaning “Chinese Language” spoken in Southeast Asia).
The difference is approximately 15% between the first two languages. You may also
hear it referred to as Zhong1 Wen2, pronounced as “Joong One”, (the language of the
Chinese people) informally; or Han4 Yu3, pronounced as Hahn Yew, ( the language of
the HAN people) under formal situations, the majority of Chinese as the descendents of
the HAN dynasty, one of the golden eras of Chinese history, 206BC-220AD).
On the other hand, there are also two types of Cantonese (GuangZhou Cantonese and
Hong Kong Cantonese) and they are pretty much the same (less than 10%), except for
the contemporary and "socialist" Mainland vocabulary and those foreign colonial
(English, Portuguese and some Spanish) words in Hong Kong Cantonese). Mandarin has
FOUR different tones while Cantonese has officially SEVEN but actually NINE in
colloquialism.
Many learners are scared by Chinese as they think they’ve been stuck by the most
difficult language in the world. What is the most difficult language to learn? Chinese that
belongs to Sino-Tibetan linguistic system? Sanskrit and Latin, are the hardest ancient
languages to learn as they are lost almost. In modern days, Navajo (The" Southern
Athabaskan Language by Native Americans; no adults can learn it.), Hebrew, Arabic (in
Writing) & Greek, Hungarian, Korean, Japanese & Chinese (in Speaking and Writing) are
the TEN most difficult ones, depending on many considerably factors.

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A native speaker of Spanish will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native
speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while
Chinese is very different, so first language is an important factor. The more different a
language is from our mother tongue, the harder it will be to learn!!! Many people
assume that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought
of learning Chinese characters, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very
difficult for foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use about
the most common 1,945 out of the original 27,533 contemporary (The Latest
Microsoft GBK 18030 Group) and ancient 42,711 up to 79,487 Traditional Chinese
Characters (繁体字,Fan2 Ti3 Zi4) named “KanJi” (漢字,Han4 Zi4) in their own language,
the writing will be less of a challenge than it will for people from languages using the
Roman alphabet.
According to my own teaching experience to expatriates and Vancourites, I myself
believe it is much easier for you beginners or even intermediate students start all over
again with spoken Mandarin only focusing on SPEAKING initially (SPEED CHINESE), the
official Chinese language recognized by UN since its birth on Oct.24th, 1945, and updated
with Simplified Chinese characters in 1971, and compared with spoken Cantonese for
reference if necessary, which is most widely spoken dialect overseas China since the 1st
Gold Rush. This is because Mainland Mandarin with 2,235 Simplified Chinese characters
(简体字, Jian2 Ti3 Zi4) reformed from 1957-1959 has only FOUR different phonetic
intonations (tones). Just like American English is easier than the so-called “Int'l English”
(including British English, Canadian English, Australian English, German English, etc.).
Both politically and economically, it has become one of the most dominating linguistic
tools in the last century after Elizabeth English. Before that, British English won over
French in most colonial countries, in the 19th century, except for Quebec. The business
language is English while the key to the artistic world is French. The key to the future is
definitely the Mainland Mandarin. Shall we start learning the future language and the
trend before the existing facts? A fact is a fact. It’s the history in the past or on this day
we are not supposed to forget.
However, among 31,612,897 Canadians (2006 Census), only 3.20% speak Chinese (in
either Mandarin or Cantonese). Among these 3.20% of Chinese Canadians, 361,450 are
Cantonese, the pioneers looking for “gold rush” opportunities with intelligence and
diligence, as well as determination, originally from the coastal areas in South China;
170,950 are Mandarin speakers from northern parts of China originally. Situation is
similar in Richmond, B.C., only 13,405 Mandarin speakers vs. 28,550 Cantonese
speakers. In Vancouver, the population of Cantonese speakers is 63,715 vs. that of
22,560 Mandarin speakers. i.e. it will be harder for you to find a Mandarin speaker to

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practice with locally in GVRD. But the fact is there are more and more Mandarin-
speaking people arriving everyday in the Gateway to Canada. In Richmond, B.C., 58.6%
residents are immigrants. 37.87% of the residents speak either Mandarin or Cantonese
or some other Chinese dialects (66,065 out of 174,461).
Canada is famous for its multiculturalism and multilingualism, unique from the “melting
pot” in the States. So is China with 56 nationalities or minorities and many of their own
dialects without numbers. For example, more than 270 different dialects with different
accents are spoken in South, Southeast of China, and that’s why Cantonese is served as
a “common language” in those areas. Among all of the dialects, Cantonese (粤语/广东
话,Yue4 Yu3, Yweh Yew/Kwang Tung Hwah) , Swatowese (潮汕话, Chao2 Shan4 Hua4,
Swa Tow Hwah,), Hakka (客家话, Ke4 Jia1 Hua4, Kuh Jyah Hwah) , Taiwanese (闽南话,
Min3 Nan3 Hua4, Meen Nan Hwah) , ShangHai (上海话,Wu2, Woo in
abbreviation/ShangHai Hwah), HuNan (湖南话,Xiang1, Shyahng in abbr./HuNan Hwah),
AnHui (安徽话, Gan4, Gahn in abbr. or AnHui Hwah) are the major ones.
I believe you have obtained a clearer big picture of our largest visible minority in Canada
by now. A dream says we hope we will succeed. A goal says we will succeed. A plan says
we will have succeeded. A piece of the action says we have succeeded. Your success is
our success!
(MR.KK, or “KK LaoShi” in Chinese literally, a speech coach for SPEED CHINESE at CCC,
Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver, an instructor for SPEED MEDICAL
CHINESE at Better Medicine Inc., Vancouver, BC. For more inquiries, contact MR.KK at:
778.883.1728 or kk@waitungkwok.com, please. If within Mainland China, please send
text messages to 138.2510.9630 for “MR.KK”. www.facebook.com/chinabridge/ )