canto sounds better! i speak chinese n i wana learn how to converse in canto..but it's so diff to pronounce the tones of each word correctly. darn it

I don't like the mandarin spoken by those with Beijing origins. Sounds so weird with those Beijing accents.

i like mandarin better~ but i can't stand the china mandarin!! it's so hard to understand.. taiwanese mandarin is wayyy nicer to listen to

OK, if you did not understand either. You would find MArdarin easier to learn and easier on the ears. Cantonese sounds harsh and it has lots of slang.

But i do know cantonese and once you understand it , it sound fine. MAndo just flows more natually.

Canto!!!!!!!! i've learned both, and i feel more familiar with canto for sum reason, its easier for me to comprend and i think it s a very cool language

cantonese of course... dunno, just sounds better. plus, cantonese actors are wayyyy hotter

canto sounds more soft dont u think? mando is more clear though

i like mandarin better. it sounds smoother? especially in music. but if u know both..it'll benefit for u later on.

I was born to speak in canto..but i do know a few words in mandarin..after going to chinese school..and watching series..hahaha..imo, i think canto is better..ahahha..maybe it`s because of the fact that i understand it and speak it..but of course, mandarin sounds nice too..especially in music...ahahaa..i love some mandarin songs..they sound so beautiful...but if im in an elevator or something..and someone is constantly talking in mandarin..i get a little annoyed. But honestly, both canto and mandarin sounds beautiful in their own ways.

i like both... because i know both... but i think canto is cooler because it has alot of slang that describes things that are hard to describe in mand and ur unable to write it.. the fact that u cant write it is what sets it apart for many other languages

i like mando cause i speak it and because i think it sounds better kaka

hmmm i'm a speaker of neither language lolz
but i'd like to contribute an opinion as well...

i dont like mando as in the one with bei jing accent...
(no offence, but it does sound weird)
but i really like mando with taiwanese accents...
it sounds more casual and all... and not to outdated.. nyerh...
as for canto, i agree that it sounds ok for everyday language
and considering you guys (who actually understand canto) says that
it has much more slangs and fun to use for everyday convo,
so i assume canto is good to use for everyday language as well
however, i don't really like canto songs
i mean no offence... the songs are sometimes nice but
at times, as there are a lot of tones (i heard there are nine of them? correct me if i'm wrong)
it somewhat influences the notes in the songs as well

nyerh... that's just my opinion...
but still, i think learning both language would be useful...
(i wish i know canto and good in mando) bleahx... lolz

I speak Cantonese, can't speak mando but can understand it if you speak slow and not using many difficult word Anyway, for some reason I prefer Cando. Just like I only listen to Canto music not Mando

erm... i was born canto... and haf been learnin mando practically all my life... its easier for ppl hu r canto to learn mando, than for ppl hu r mando to learn canto... because there are a lot more tones in canto... i prefer canto to mando because its easier to understand... but i also agree that mando songs sound better than canto ones... not really sure why... maybe because there's usually a wider variety... but then, mando is better because more ppl understand it... i fink... and more ppl learn it... as mando is what most ppl refer to when they say chinese... i wonder why this is when cantonese has been around for longer.... hrm...

I'm Cantonese but i still want ot learn Mandarin, so i knwo both but mostly speak Cantonese

i speak cantonese, mardarin a little bit if u speak slowly .

hrmm i heard that mandarin are more "see man" or polite? I dont know though because i dont speak mandarin that well... maybe someone else can confirm it

From the topic title, I first thought this was a question about whether people who speak Cantonese or people who speak Mandarin are better. I know it's foolish, but you wouldn't believe the kind of people out there who would actually think they are "superior" because of the language they speak. Anyways, to answer your question, I personally prefer speaking Cantonese in everyday language, but enjoy songs in Mandarin more. Again, I hope people aren't so thick-headed to actually believe that they are "superior" to another ethnicity/race just because of the language they speak. That's my two cents, have a nice day!

Mandarin, of course.

i choose mando, because is more useful in the world.
and on the computer you must type mando to type chinese.
but i'm a canto speaker.

I liked Canto better until recently when I'm introduced to Mando. Canto sounds cool but sometimes whiny if overdone... like they always add that "ahh" sound at the end and it's annoying when girls whine like that.
Mando sounds nice when you're reciting a poem or singing a song, but everyday conversation sounds squeaky because ppl speak it too fast

I would rather learn Cantonese since I am much more interested in Hong Kong.

I like both of them but i speak better canto so i like canto more

hehe maybe we should turn this into a poll...instead of reading 4 pages of comments! It will be an interesting result i think. Personally, I prefer cantonese since in understand it more (i'm viet but have been watching TVB series for a while thus i under stand it) but I'm still trying to get used to Mandarin tho. Too bad there aren't people here to communicate w/ me in cantonese or mando as that helps a lot i think. Mandarin i think, is a lot better than canto as its more proper (don't really know how to explain i) but canto is easier to understand.

kickasschick, actually Mandarin is easier to learn as canto is complex with it's various intonations as well as a ton of idioms.

However, I prefer Cantonese (which I barely speak) as more people I know speak it.

I speak both. Cantonese is my mother tounge and Mandarin is something I learned as a second language. Even though my Cantonese is better than my Mandarin, I do find Mandarin to be softer and more gentle. At certain times speaking Cantonese, I do find it to be a little rough. But living here in Vancouver, I mostly speak Cantonese since the majority of the Chinese here speak Cantonese while only a small number of them speak Mandarin. So living in Vancouver doesn't give you much opportunity to practice Mandarin.

my mother tounge is mandarin and i learned cantonese later.
i find mandarin is more useful
but i prefer cantonese, it sounds interesting

Yeah, same here (with the mother tongue thing). I like mandarin songs better than cantonese versions sometimes because it seems the mandarin flows better. I speak cantonese at home but learn mandarin at school (and I must say I think I have the horrible accent that native cantonese speakers who try to learn mandarin have. something to do with tones and how I can't master the 4 mandarin ones properly, even though cantonese has 7!)

I speak Cantonese at home but learnt to read and write Chinese in Mandarin. Hence, I speak better Mandarin than Cantonese. I'm not from Hong Kong, so I have difficulty understanding the slang sometimes when I'm watching TVB or ATV serials.

I personally find that Hong Kongers who speak Cantonese tend to use a lot of English words with Cantonese intonation. Because I'm a purist at heart, I prefer listening to people from Guangzhou (Kwong Chow), China speak Cantonese.

For me, I prefer Cantonese to Mandarin, but that's simply because my Mandarin is better than my Cantonese, so I'm very envious of anybody that speaks fluent Cantonese. I personally find that Cantonese is harder to learn, because written Cantonese is so different from spoken Cantonese. I tried reading a transcript of a dialogue in Cantonese. I couldn't understand what I was reading until I recited the entire passage aloud.

As for songs, I'm going to sound stupid for saying this, but my opinion is that songs that were originally written in Cantonese sound better in Cantonese and vice versa for Mandarin. For example, the lyrics for William So and Kit Chan's Loy Ye Fong Cheung is much better than the Mandarin version, which has different lyrics and goes by the title Ai De Zheng Hao. People who watched the Taiwanese serial adaption of "The Chinese Ghost Story" (Qian Nv You Hun) would have heard Daniel Chan sing the theme song in Mandarin. The lyrics remain the same as the Cantonese version, but I assure you that the song sounded much better when Leslie Cheung sang it in Cantonese. The song, IMHP, just sounds odd in Mandarin.

Mmmm...the theme to A Chinese Ghost Story could only sound good in mandarin...totally agreed. (I think that was a Jim Wong set of lyrics) Anyway, I like both as much as the other. I like cantonese a lot because it's my family language, but I like the intonation of mandarin quite a lot as well. A lot of the times, my cousin and I like to mix and match mando, canto and english - so we have this mix up of words, rather amusing actually.

Mando sounds cooler to me cause its not everyday. Canto is better for casual talk.

cantonese is a beautiful language, very fluid

mandarin is a bit harsh

I like to speak cantonese, don't know why, Guess it's because i don't know how to speak in Mandarin. I just know a little bit of Mandarin. Quite hard to learn it especially the writing part, it often confuses me.

cantonese is closer to the language i speak (taishan)....it sounds better than mandarin. it pisses me off when u talk to someone who speaks only mandarin and they are like "why dont u know mandarin? its ur parents fault for not teaching u." that has strayed me away from ever learning mandarin.

mandarin is more useful, typing characters on the computer

I like Mandarin, because it is in a way easier to learn, because there are only four tones. I think Cantonese is like nine tones. Mandarin will be more useful because it is the official dialect, and just because there are a lot of Cantonese speakers than Mandarin speaker in U.S., if you go to China, there will be more mandarin speakers.

I Like MOre Canto because like more Cool No im JOcking
maybe because i dont know speak and learn it LOl

i like mandrin more even tho i'm cantonese i think mandrin flows more smoothly and i'm just intersting in learning it because its the easiest to learn. like esp in songs i think mandrin songs sound so much better than canto ones sometimes

i speak cantonese and next to no mandarin. But living in Toronto, the mandarin population is really getting off here. I still liek Cantonese more though, sounds cooler and more concrete then mandarin (my opinion).

I speak both mando and canto.. not too well of course but yea they have alot of smilarities so no need to compare sometimes the language sond very different in singing i mean mando sounds alot better than canto hehe
aslso my opinion <3

Not necessarily the case in all parts of the U.S. In the L.A. area for example, the number of mandarin speakers is greater than the number of Cantonese speakers. Huge population of immigrants from Taiwan and recently, the number of immigrants from the Mainland has surged as well. On the other hand, there has been VERY LITTLE immigration from HK to the L.A. area.

I speak Mando. I hear both and I believe that Mando is the nicer sounding of the two, objectively.

I prefer Cantonese because I get tongue twisted sometimes speaking in Mandrian. ' '

well i prefer mandarin since its a more spoken language even though i am a cantonese speaker. But i prefer the cantonese accent more ( well the Hong kong one ) But now if u want to be a business man best learn mandarin because the chinese market is growing and more people are looking foward to see people who can speak mandarin. mandarin is also more easier to learn to speak than cantonese because the cantonese dialect dosent follow the .. well what you write in cantonese you can not use it in a converstation where as mandarin you can.

I prefer canto because I don't really speak mando but I like the accent.

i think mandarin sounds cooler but cantonese is funnier.
cantonese has a lot of slang and provides a lot of opportunity for making puns and stuff.
i observed this by watching HK comedies, lol.

I speak both languages. I prefer mandarin over canto. Simple reason, canto has too much slang and they don't sound good ... or should I said their tone sound too uncivilized to a non-speaker. All of my non-canto speaking friends of mind feel the ways and sounds it's been spoken are not comfortable. It's sound like yelling and arguing in the public places. Not just them, I felt it many times. Mandarin is more softer and sound better. Especially the Taiwan mandarin. Mainland China mandarin curls too much tongue. You can feel the tiredness from listening to it.
So, Taiwan mandarin is the best for me. (I'm not from Taiwan.)

I speak Cantonese, but I can understand Mand, I think Mando people speak too fast, therefore it's like rushing everything out. I prefer cantonese

In Malaysia,

We talk mandarin in school (for chinese schools only) - we have no choice because teachers and all students talk mandarin.

Outside school then we speak cantonese, because we grown up speaking cantonese...

Cantonese for me! I speak it more fluently than Mandarin and also it is more "expressive" than Mandarin!