Mandarin or Amoy?

**Isuzoom** · April 27th, 2009 09:16 PM

pero ok din amoy fookien....

**testament11** · April 27th, 2009 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by redorange

Amoy aka Xiamen is a place and not a language, they speak Fukien in that area of China.

TS if you do international business then learn Mandarin if just regional business then Fukien is fine.

hahaha, nakakahiya chinese pa man din ako

**Memphis Raines** · April 27th, 2009 11:38 PM

Thanks so much guys for your insights

Ah yes, fukien, that was mentioned by some for local business. Quite common daw.

I do have have suppliers from China that I talk to over the phone from time to time so I guess Mandarin will come in handy. It's kinda hard to distinguish the two. It would also help if I could understand what they are talking about whenever I'm around them

**boybi** · April 28th, 2009 06:45 AM

Mandarin would be easier to learn between the two. Mandarin have the pinyin to help you pronounce chinese/mandarin words.

from Wikipedia:

Pinyin, or more formally Hanyu Pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound". Developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the system was initially approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982,[3] and since then it has been adopted by many other organizations. Since January 1, 2009, it is also the official romanization system in Republic of China (ROC). It is used to teach Chinese schoolchildren and foreign learners the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese, to spell Chinese names in foreign publications and to enter Chinese characters (hanzi) on computers.

Sa Fookien, you have to memorize the pronounciation of each word

In the end, whichever dialect you choose to master, if you don't speak it often, makakalimutan mo rin yan.

**ans_lim168** · April 28th, 2009 07:47 AM

Good day, Tsinoy here and I speak Fookien and Mandarin. For me it's better to study Mandarin coz like what was stated this is our national language. Almost all Chinese know how to speak this, Fookien is a dialect mainly used by the Chinese migrants from Fujian province.

Good thing I still know my Chinese lessons and Mandarin from way back, at least my 13 years of study did not go to waste.

**vinrem** · April 28th, 2009 08:01 AM

If you are dealing with chinese at the mainland, you should learn mandarin, all chinese mainlanders knows how to speak mandarin but not all mainlanders know how to speak fukien or cantonese.

**Memphis Raines** · April 28th, 2009 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by boybi

Mandarin would be easier to learn between the two. Mandarin have the pinyin to help you pronounce chinese/mandarin words.

from Wikipedia:

Sa Fookien, you have to memorize the pronounciation of each word

In the end, whichever dialect you choose to master, if you don't speak it often, makakalimutan mo rin yan.

Yes that's right, I'm having difficulty with my fookien when it comes to the intonations because the lessons specify this, especially the highs and lows hehe.

Somebody is also offering 'conversational lessons' for Mandarin. Will this be easier on me if I just converse?

**ghosthunter** · April 28th, 2009 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by Memphis Raines

Yes that's right, I'm having difficulty with my fookien when it comes to the intonations because the lessons specify this, especially the highs and lows hehe.

Somebody is also offering 'conversational lessons' for Mandarin. Will this be easier on me if I just converse?

Even mandarin has the same requirements for intonations (up, down, up-down, flat) as used in fookien.

Spoken with the wrong intonation, a word can mean the exact opposite of that you meant to say.

**testament11** · April 28th, 2009 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by ans_lim168

Good day, Tsinoy here and I speak Fookien and Mandarin. For me it's better to study Mandarin coz like what was stated this is our national language. Almost all Chinese know how to speak this, Fookien is a dialect mainly used by the Chinese migrants from Fujian province.

Good thing I still know my Chinese lessons and Mandarin from way back, at least my 13 years of study did not go to waste.

buti ka pa bro. samantalang ako, basic nalang ang alam

**testament11** · April 28th, 2009 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by ghosthunter

Even mandarin has the same requirements for intonations (up, down, up-down, flat) as used in fookien.

Spoken with the wrong intonation, a word can mean the exact opposite of that you meant to say.

correct. may mga words na same character, different intonation will give different meaning.