Chinese – stlplace

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I started to learn Cantonese 粤语 recently from Duolingo. While I forgot many 宁波话 Ningbo dialect since I went to college in Wuhan: I started to speak much more mandarin since then. I was wondering about the similarities between two dialects (Cantonese and Ningbo Dialect) 粤语和宁波话是否有共同之处 (google search). 我现在想到至少有两个字或词是一样的：话（讲话），中意（满意）。I think there are many more: it’s just a matter of time for me to find them.

A related question I had earlier is whether 粤语更接近古汉语吗 (again google search). 粤语是保留了最完整的古汉语 (360doc). Quote

在全球使用粤语人数甚多，广东使用粤语的人口大约有6700万，加上广西粤语使用人数大约为2500万、香港700万、澳门55万、泰国500万、新加坡和马来西亚500万、美国和加拿大200万，全球将近有1.2亿人口使用粤语。

粤语是不是古汉语？这是我见过最全面的解释了！(羊城网)

YT – in English – Why Cantonese is Closer to Ancient Chinese than Mandarin

救救方言，救救城市的灵魂 – 原创土哥涅夫秦朔朋友圈 – 来源：澎湃新闻·澎湃号·湃客 – quote below and this seems matched my rough observations too

都说入乡随俗，过去人们移居一座新的城市，往往会通过学习当地方言来融入本地社会。但如今，随着大量外地人口涌入长三角，反而冲淡了本地的语言环境，甚至于出现了“上海内环内说英语，中环内说普通话，外环外才说上海话”的奇怪现象。

记得前几年，网络上曾流传过一张《6-20岁能够熟练使用方言人群比例》的图，其中吴语的使用比例全国垫底，像杭州话、温州话、宁波话，本地青年人能熟练使用的比例均已低于10%，苏州话更是只有2.2%，濒临消亡。这自然激发出吴语区人民的母语危机感。

今年初《繁花》电视剧为什么会大火，引发如此多的关注和讨论？未必是这部剧本身有多好，在我看来，相比当年的《股疯》《孽债》，香港人王家卫拍的是他心目中想象的上海，这个“上海”里人物穿着打扮、品味审美的精致程度，更接近民国，而非90年代的上海。

PS: when I was in college, the Cantonese pop songs or #Cantopop were very popular in colleges and in the China. Here is a playlist on YT – 經典粵語歌曲 – 香港90年代流行經典廣東歌回顧 | 必听经典粤语歌 – Cantonese Golden Songs: 張學友，陳慧嫻，叶丽仪, 张国荣, 谭咏麟, 陈慧娴, 陈百强, 梅艳芳。In fact, one of my roommates would sing this one almost everyday – 一生何求 (the 1st song in the playlist above, here is a standalone YT video – 陳百強 Danny Chan -《一生何求》Official MV (電視劇《義不容情》主題曲). I didn’t think too much about learning Cantonese dialect then. Although in Spring 1993, a few roommates went to Guang’zhou (and Guangdong province) looking for jobs. Note at that time Guangdong province was much more economically developed than my college town Wuhan, as it was close to Hongkong, and it was the very 1st province opened to the outside world in 1980s. Quite a few of my classmates in college went there to work after graduation.

Last but not least, 中国10大最难懂方言：排名第一的，并非粤语、闽南语. Again quote a bit below:

有句俗话说宁听苏州人吵架，不听宁波人说话，充分说明了苏州话的“软糯”。

因为温州话是第一名，这里有一个油管视频：连温州人都听不懂的温州话 (吳儂軟語 Wu Chinese)

不在国/华人里面扎堆

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Google search: 不在国人里面扎堆（不在华人里面扎堆）: this talked about the Chinese students abroad like to confine among themselves, in terms of social interaction etc. I can sense it when I saw my niece was here for her high school and undergraduate study.

Recently I realized some Chinese parents like to gather among Chinese parents as well. It’s not surprising and to some extent understandable for people like to gather among their races. I saw that during pandemic. But at the same time, as we gradually go back to the new normal, we should strive to step out our comfort zone.

My take

No need to be that absolute. Ideal scenario: now that we are in Rome, (for the most part) let’s do as Romes do. Otherwise why we came here at the 1st place.

When I was in Rolla during my graduate school, I stayed at Fraternity with undergraduates mainly to learn more about the English language and American culture. At my first US employer after the graduate school, I was the only Chinese at the branch and I learned all the computer programming topics in English.

Now that my kids go to middle and elementary school, I encourage my kids to play with the kids from all background. At the same time, I acted as the permanent DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) rep in the PTA/PTO organization. There are always something to learn from other cultures. And we are not always the best, the smartest, or most hard working.

One downside solely gathering among Chinese people

One word (in Chinese): 卷。Look no further than the San Francisco bay area, among the Chinese kids. Many parents either went to ivory colleges (or other very good universities) for graduate school, and for them if their kids don’t go to good universities, it’s a failure both for the kid and the parents. I have friend who moved from bay area to Miami and one reason was to reduce some competition for his kids. This is true in the school district my kids attend, although they are still a bit young (7th and 3rd grades, respectively). But I can see the pressure going up as they progress through their grades.