this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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Learn the Chinese language

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What exactly does "The Chinese language" mean? Does it mean Mandarin, or are other langs like Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew included?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's not ambiguous for anyone familiar with the topic. Chinese withoutany further clarification means Mandarin, putonghua, "common language". That being said any discussion of other Chinese languages or dialects I'm sure would be welcome in this community.

addit: I don't think anyone would feign confusion about whether a community for learning Italian was referring to the Italian national language or Sicilian or Naples dialect.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well put, I'm also not familiar with any sentiment that assuming Chinese means putonghua is a problem. Although I won't assume OP meant to imply that. Many nation building projects in the "old world" (where linguistic diversity is great) have involved language standardization.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

"I’m also not familiar with any sentiment that assuming Chinese means putonghua is a problem." I've come across Westerners who do make this claim, as well as some people from HK.