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[–] 7 points 6 months ago (1 child)

I think anyone in India and Africa speaks 4 languages easily.

  1. their regional language (i.e. Masaai, Yoruba, Xhosa)
  2. the over-regional language (Arabic, Swahili)
  3. a coloniser language (English, French)
  4. and possibly just enough of a neighbouring regional language

I think many Chinese people are also bilingual (i.e. Wu+ always mandarin). They often learn another language in school (English or something geographically closer, like Korean).

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago*

    I think many Chinese people are also bilingual

    Yes... some are even tri-lingual because of village dialect (eg: Taishanese) + province dialect (eg: Cantonese) + national dialect (Mandarin)

    Unfortunately, the PRC government is heavily pushing Mandarin and some of the local variants (aka: "dialects") are slowly dying... some kids in Guangzhou don't even speak Cantonese anymore...

    (i.e. Wu+ always mandarin)

    Shanghaiese is semi-dead... from what I heard

    Cantonese is slowly limping its way forward only because they have Hong Kong TV, I don't think there are many TV shows in Shanghaiese.

    If Hong Kong falls... Cantonese is gonna die... :(

    Parents also never spoke Taishanese to me... so yea I unfortunately cannot pass on that language... no Taishanese media... hard to find motivation to learn more about it.

    So I only have Cantonese and Mandarin...

    I doubt my kids (if I ever have any) would be able to learn it... most 2nd generation overseas Chinese kinda just English-Only with bare minimum in ancestor's language.

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