A difference in Languages
So for anyone who has followed me over the millions of years I've been on this hellsite there are two to three things that have remained the same. My love of tea, Mass Effect, and Languages. I love Languages, I love learning new words, I love learning how a word has changed and reshaped over the years of use. I love seeing new words being made out of old words. I've dabbled in learning new languages just so I have more words to learn about. All that being said, I'm am turbo white. I can't even say I'm Hellmann's Mayonnaise white (Yes, its spelled with 2 Ns I looked it up twice), because that started in Germany! But I can say I'm Wonder bread white..., that started in Indianapolis. I burn in the moonlight, and I glow in the dark. So super white. Gollum would have a better time in the sun then I do. I have very little experience when it comes to Chinese save for the wonderful people I used to work with some years ago who were patient enough to watch a red headed girl too eager to try and communicate stumble over the words they were willing to teach me. We all worked at a buffet in a casino. Their department was separate from my own, but shared the same serving areas so we had a lot of time and ability to interact. The amount of times they snuck me food to try... God damn do I miss their spring rolls holy shit... But the one thing that caught me off guard was the fact that they had four different guys all working the same area and only 2 of them spoke the same east Asian dialect and one only vaguely so, and 3 spoke broken English. This memory came to mind watching a Youtube video about Chinese languages, and how Mandarin is starting to push out Cantonese and Manchurian is even further pushed to the side than Cantonese. So, here is my 'I'm a white girl who loves language but has no real concept when it comes to these three languages and I apologize if this is a super stupid question' buuut, how different is Mandarin, Cantonese and Manchurian from each other? Are we talking like... the difference between Peninsular Spanish (Mexican/Argentine/Rioplatense) and Spain Spanish where the two can easily communicate, just with some slight grammar and a few every day vocabulary differences. Or is this the difference of I'm dumb and don't have an ear for any of the three so I can't pick out how they sound different so totally a different language like Japanese trying to listen to Korean? If any of this came off as rude or ignorant; 1.) I apologize I'm honestly curious and not trying to be rude. 2.) Yes I am ignorant that is why I'm trying to educate myself with several different points of call. Tumblr being one of many I'm asking.
