Jason's dismayed eyes flitted around the few remaining presents. As the morning had worn on, the number of boxes under the Christmas tree had gradually fallen, until the shapes and sizes of the unopened packages were now easily discernible on even casual glance. And despite their cheerful wrapping, the gifts gave him a sense of foreboding. None seemed large enough to hold the massive archive of HSK tests for which he had prayed each night.Could this possibly be yet another Christmas without HSK tests? Might tomorrow, and the day after, and every day in the year to follow be devoid once again of the pleasure of test-taking? Of the sheer joy of pitting oneself against the HSK and emerging intellectually bruised and perhaps even temporarily nauseous from the attempt? A tear formed in the corner of his eye. What a cruel world where the joy of Christmas had to be tempered with the pain of such deprivation.
maxiewawa
said on December 24, 2009
Is there any difference between written Putonghua and Guangdonghua? Besides the traditional characters of course.
I've been reading Chinese newspapers and here in Australia and I'm pretty sure that it's written by Guangdong hua speaking people, because some of the Chinese alliteration of foreign names are a bit weird (if read with their putonghua readings).
I probably wouldn't have known it was Guangdonghua otherwise, but was just wondering if a native speaker (reader) would be able to tell the difference. Am I wasting my time? It's actually an effort to get more vocab and thereby improve my 听力(聽力!) so there isn't much point if there is a big difference in vocab.
Brendan
said on December 24, 2009
@maxiewawa - It depends really how you look at things. Formal writing done by Cantonese speakers tends to be for all intents and purposes the same as Mandarin -- partly by design, as Putonghua was expressly defined as being close to the written standard language -- though there are some subtle differences in usage. This also shows up especially in transliterations, as you've noticed.
There are also more colloquial newspapers in Cantonese, like the Apple Daily, which are markedly different: unlike traditional newspapers, these aim to more closely reflect spoken Cantonese, and they do so both by adopting patterns that are natural to Cantonese but not Putonghua and by using Cantonese-specific characters (so-called 俗子, though that name is unnecessarily and inaccurately derogatory).
Anyway, it sounds like you're reading some of the more staid Cantonese newspapers -- so I wouldn't worry about it. The differences in usage *do* exist, but aren't significant enough to be a problem -- think of British vs. American English.
LanZi
said on December 24, 2009
@maxiewawaI am a native Cantonese speaker and I agree with Brendan. Formal Cantonese writing is more close to Taiwan Guoyu in terms of choice of words, like 道地 rather than 地道. than to mainland Putonghua. So sometimes a native Putonghua speaker has problem reading Cantonese articles, especially the colloquial ones. Take Apple Daily Hong Kong for example, ...志玲雞仔聲冧周杰倫。In Mandarin it would be 志玲小鸡嗓, 迷倒周杰伦。But I guess Chinese newspaper in Australia should be fine. I guess they have various Chinese readers from mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
barrister
said on December 24, 2009
Merry Christmas everyone. I'm back home in Boston and it is *cold*. Missing Asia already.
LanZi
said on December 24, 2009
Merry Christmas! Beijing is not much warmer. We are experiencing a storm now... Just read a comment on the almost 3-hour long movie Avatar. Lol.http://runpee.com/#/Avatar__1RunPee.com列出《阿凡达》的最佳尿点为第56分钟、第1小时57分钟、第2小时13分钟、第2小时25分钟。哈哈哈。
trevelyan
said on December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas everyone! It looks like we're going to have a white one here in Toronto - it started snowing a few hours ago and there's already a white layer of snow on the ground. We managed to drag Echo out and around the city too. Will share the photos when we get back to Beijing.
Xiao Hu
said on December 25, 2009
Trevelyan,
圣诞快乐！How I envy you! Here in 洛杉矶 it looks like we're going to have yet another brown Christmas, as usual the smog here is quite palpable. Right out my window the 圣盖博 mountains are covered over in a thick, dense blanket of the stuff. But hey, at least we have palm trees...
我迫不及待到了重庆！
Looking forward to seeing the photos of your vacation!
节日时期快乐！
Brendan
said on December 25, 2009
Happy Christmas all! It snowed relatively heavily last weekend in Philadelphia, and it looks like tomorrow we're going to have some rain to wash it all away. I suppose a rainy Christmas isn't exactly the sort of thing Bing Crosby would dream of -- but it'll at least be warmer than it is in Beijing right now.
@LanZi - that's the kind of movie review I can use!
Zeemam
said on January 1, 2010
maxiewawa asked: Is there any difference between written Putonghua and Guangdonghua? Besides the traditional characters of course.
This is similar to a question I have: Do mainland Chinese residents of Guandong learn Chinese Simplified characters in their schools?
When a Guandong resident reads Chinese Simplified characters, do they pronounce as Cantonese language?
Im confused as I just met some mainland Chinese Guandong folks yesterday; when I showed them a copy of the exact text; one written in Simplified characters, the other in Traditional, they told me it was the same. So I couldnt figure out which one they prefered to read.
LanZi
said on January 2, 2010
@Zeemam
Yes. Guangdong residents learn Simplified characters and Putonghua in school, and we (I'm from Guangdong) use Simplified Chinese in daily life. However, because of the influence of Hongkong media (TV shows, music, movies etc.), we are able to read traditional characters as well, but writing could be a challenge to some of us.
Since Guangdong residents are usually Cantonese-Mandarin bilingual, it's personal habit to pronounce either Cantonese or Mandarin when reading. My parents would prefer Cantonese since they were brought up in a small town and did not receive much Putonghua education when they were kids. For me it depends on the language environment.
So yes. It's the same to me as well to read Simplified or Traditional text.
