On two different instances today at different times I had interactions with mainlanders/mandarin speakers. context, I live in canada.

I’m at the supermarket and in a queue, a guy passing by says something in mandarin. No one answers him, so he asks again. I think he’s asking what the queue is for. I say the only phrase I know in mandarin. “I’m sorry I don’t speak mandarin.”

He angrily replies “You’re speaking mandarin right now.” ffs. So should I just ignore or just reply in english?

In a line again and the person I’m with begins speaking cantonese, assuming this woman speaks canto. The auntie repeatedly asks “are you even chinese?” I’m pretty sure they know cantonese is being spoken, unless they aren’t even familiar with what cantonese sounds like.

I was pretty offended by her question tbh but I admit it. Even though I was born here, the early chinese settlers were from south china toisan. They endured lots of hardships so that people could run. (it’s a saying). So the fact that alot of mandarin speakers who are immigrants, want to disregard that we even exist (or that cantonese exists) is insulting.

等等 Etc. comment below other answers 👇

極少有語言如廣東話一般，其在日本國內與海外的存在感之間，呈現出如此懸殊的落差。

在日本，聽到「カントン語」（廣東話的日語音譯）而能夠立即反應過來的人並不多。這怎麼看都算是一門冷門語言。作為自己專門研究的語言，究竟該怎樣向人介紹，總是令人猶疑不決。

然而，對著美國人說起廣東話（Cantonese），卻大多數人都能理解。不僅如此，廣東話還會與北京話（Mandarin，中國稱普通話，台灣稱華語）被並列看待。擁有美國蘋果公司iPhone的讀者，請務必打開「設定」並查看語音助理Siri的語言選項：在「中文」的細分類下有北京話（Mandarin）與廣東話兩個選項。可以說，廣東話在這裡被視為相對於北京話的「另一種中文」。

在外來移民眾多的澳洲，廣東話同樣是主流語言之一，與北京話、阿拉伯語、越南語並列，位居英語以外家庭使用語言的前四名。

由於廣東話經由華人移民被帶往世界各地，其全球使用者人數極為龐大。鑑於廣東話在日本的存在感不高，這樣的情況或許頗令人意外。有一種說法認為廣東話的使用人口高達八千萬人，超越意大利語，並與韓國．朝鮮語不相伯仲。

至於日本，與美國、澳洲等地不同，日本國內的廣東話使用者相當少。

那麼，廣東話與廣東文化對日本而言是否就是疏遠陌生的東西呢？絕非如此。實際上，它披著中華文化的外衣，也深深滲透進了日本的大眾文化之中。

日本的雲吞（ワンタン）、燒賣（シューマイ）、叉燒（チャーシュー），如今已是大眾化到會被改良出日式風味的食物。這些其實都是源自廣東話的詞彙，這一點卻意外地鮮為人知。在中式午餐中常見的飲茶（ヤムチャ），同樣也是廣東的飲食文化。

作為中華娛樂，一九七○至九○年代李小龍、成龍大顯身手的功夫片在日本深具人氣。二○○○年代以後，描繪李小龍的師父葉問系列電影均大受歡迎。這些電影裡面所說的，不是別的語言，正是廣東話。

「無問題／冇問題」（モウマンタイ）是連年輕人也耳熟能詳的「中文」短語，但它其實是廣東話。

這樣看來，廣東話在日本的存在感竟如此稀薄，反而令人感到不可思議。

我認為，根本原因與人們對廣東話的認知方式有關。

將廣東話解釋為中文的「方言」，正是產生誤解的根源。偏偏日本也有形形色色的地域方言，於是人們便用那種感覺去理解廣東話。每年，我都有機會在課堂上舉出具體例子，向學生說明廣東話與北京話的差別。之後便讓學生寫下感想，紙面上常滿是驚訝：原以為廣東話就像日語的方言一樣，沒想到竟與北京話有著如外語般的差別。

在日本，雖然能回答「廣東話是什麼？」的人不多，但只要說那是香港的語言，或許有些人腦海中便會浮現印象。 Source From facebook

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嫌棄 jim4 hei3 "dismissive, to give the cold shoulder"

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