| # | Author | Message |
41
| jmuboy
Thu 8/18/2005 9:01a | post number 40 explains why our president is such an idiot. |
42
| TDLFAN
Thu 8/18/2005 10:51a | >>("why would I need to know about that?")<<
It's the only way to be ahead of the game... |
43
| danyoung
Thu 8/18/2005 1:00p | >...something lost on most people from Texas I guess...<
And I was going to be nice and not point out that the saying is not "join the vanwagon" but "jumping on the bandwagon", but you can forget that now, amigo!!!
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44
| leemac
Thu 8/18/2005 1:56p | <<Cantonese and Mandarin are also being spoken by park employees (in additon to English)>>
jmuboy I believe it is English, Cantonese and a language called Putonghua which is a simplified version of Mandarin (or so HKDL have led me to believe!). The characters are far simpler and it is just more popular in HK. There is the usual disclaimer sign at Guest Relations and it is interesting to see how different the characters are.
Portuguese wouldn't work as Macau is actually a far trek from HK (70km I believe). Isn't it also a separate SAR to HK and China? I don't think they are expecting a lot of Macanese to visit the park. HK-ers tend to speak English a lot (not sure if it is just being a former colony or the increasing importance of English in China) so that is the natural choice.
I hope that is all correct. I need to research it further for Tales so I'm always open to be corrected on this one. |
45
| SuperDry
Thu 8/18/2005 3:03p | Macau is indeed its own SAR. Regarding the language, the simple answer is that Putonghua is the native word for what we normally call Mandarin. It would be similar to saying that lots of people in the US speak English and Espanol instead of saying English and Spanish.
Around the time of the handover, Hong Kong seemed to switch from calling it Mandarin to Putonghua. Especially at the time, there was this big thing in Hong Kong about "rediscovering" Chinese heritage. One aspect was to start calling the official language/dialect of the mainland by the native word it uses to refer to itself. |
46
| leemac
Thu 8/18/2005 3:43p | Is Putonghua exactly the same as Mandarin? |
47
| SuperDry
Thu 8/18/2005 4:37p | ^^^ My understanding is that the answer is "yes." There's an article on the subject on wikipedia that explains it pretty well. |
48
| TDLFAN
Thu 8/18/2005 7:07p | Xie-Xie. |
49
| pierrot
Thu 8/18/2005 8:49p | Maybe I can help a bit as I use Cantonese as mother tongue, but it can easily becom a 5000-word essay. :-)
Mandarin and Putonghua are the same. It's basically a dialect spoken in Beijing. The Chinese Govt decided in 1949 that this Beijing dialect will become the common tongue (which is what Putonghua means) in China. There are many many different dialects in China and most of time people from different areas won't understand each other. For example, someone who uses Cantonese (the most popular tongue in Hong Kong) won't be able to understand people who speak in Shanghainese, because words are pronounced very differently and the grammar of the two dialects is slightly different. That's the reason why they needed to pick one dialect (Beijing dialect, or Mandarin, or Putonghua) and everyone in China has to learn it.
In Hong Kong, the two official languages are Chinese and English. When I say Chinese, I refer to the grammar use of Beijing dialect only. Most people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese and English but not Mandarin, but in writing people have to write according to the grammar rules used in Mandarin. In other words, when we write in Chinese we have to use a different set of grammar, instead of writing as we speak the language.
About simplified and traditional Chinese characters: again in 1949 the Chinese govt decided they had to simplify the way Chinese characters is written so that more people could become literate. Simplified Chinese characters are mainly used in mainland China and Singapore, while traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong and Taiwan (and Macau). I personally don't like the idea because traditional Chinese characters have been in place for thousands of years; after one or two generations people who been taught to write in simplified Chinese characters will not be able to read traditional Chinese characters anymore and it's simply a shame.
Hope it helps. :-)
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50
| mstaft
Fri 8/19/2005 7:27a | ^^^Thanks for the explanation. Fascinating. |
