Yim,


I was taught at school, that the written Chinese was deduced from the
Madarin writing. I might be wrong. What I wanted to say is: "Madarin is not
spoken by everyone", but Cecile Chi (in a earlier posting) said that most
educated inhabitants of Hong Kong would be able to speak Mandarin.


Regards,


Jan Gerrit
"Yim Szeto" <[log in to unmask]> schreef in bericht
news:980jbs02bg0@enews1.newsguy.com...
> Mandarin is NOT a national WRITTEN language but an official/national
spoken language (dialect).  People spoken difference dialects (Mandarin,
Cantonese) in China write the same Chinese characters.
>
> Yim Szeto
>
> >>> Cecile Chi <[log in to unmask]> 3/4/2001 6:21:12 PM >>>
> In a message dated 3/4/01 5:52:36 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << Not in all
>  China, Mandarin is only a national written language (not generally
spoken).
> >>
>
> Just about everyone I know (educated people) speak Mandarin in addition
> to their local dialect.
> In Hong Kong, you're likely to find that Cantonese dialects are the most
> widely used.
>
> Cecile Chi
>