Why Chinese people don't speak or write Chinese
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This presentation takes an in-depth look at the "Chinese language". The truth is that Chinese people don't speak or write Chinese. They mainly speak Mandarin or Cantonese, among other dialects, and write in Simplified or Traditional characters. However, even this explanation doesn't reveal the complexities involved. If you're trying to perform localised and culturally appropriate digital marketing in China, you need to understand these complexities and target the correct written and spoken language to the right audience.
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Why Chinese people don't speak or write Chinese
- 1. Why Chinese people don’t speak or write Chinese June 2019 1 By Damien and Lei
- 3. obaninternational.com History and evolution of written and spoken Chinese Chinese language today Chinese language and our clients: What to think, what to say, what to advise? 3 The truth about Chinese language agenda
- 5. obaninternational.com5 Origins of Writing in China A very complex system which has evolved throughout the centuries • The earliest form of Chinese writing is called the oracle bone script, used from 1500 to 1000 BCE (Shang Dynasty) • Chinese is one of the oldest continually used writing systems still in use. • This script was etched onto turtle shells and animals bones, which were then heated until cracks would appear. They were then used for divination in the royal Shang court, hence the name "oracle bones".
- 6. obaninternational.com6 Evolution of writing in Chinese language AKA Traditional Chinese AKA Simplified Chinese IN USE TODAY
- 7. obaninternational.com7 Written Chinese today: Simplified or Traditional [full stop]
- 9. obaninternational.com9 Chinese different varieties and dialects: The tones! • Many varieties of spoken Chinese which allow the same written form to be spoken in different ways. • Same characters are used but are spoken with different tones which makes it pronounced completely differently. • For example, Hong Kong 香港 sounds like “heong gong” when pronounced in Cantonese, but the same Chinese characters sound like “siang gang” when pronounced in Standard Chinese (Mandarin).
- 10. obaninternational.com10 Chinese different varieties and dialects VIDEO OF LEI PROUNOUNCING
- 11. obaninternational.com11 Mandarin different tones RECORDING OF LEI PROUNOUNCING
- 12. obaninternational.com12 Cantonese different tones RECORDING OF LEI’S FRIEND PROUNOUNCING
- 13. obaninternational.com13 Chinese different varieties and dialects Rank Languages in China 1 Standard Chinese (Mandarin) 2 Yue (Cantonese) 3 Wu (Shanghainese) 4 Minbei (Fuzhou) 5 Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese) 6 Xiang 7 Gan 8 Hakka 9 Zhuang 10 Mongolian 11 Uighur 12 Krygyz 13 Tibetan
- 14. obaninternational.com14 Written Chinese VS spoken Chinese
- 15. obaninternational.com15 Chinese different regionalism • Cantonese is spoken in different countries and territories so the vocabulary used can differ when spoken in Taiwan and Hong-Kong like English differs when spoken in USA and in the UK • Same for all the different spoken forms of Chinese • Cultural differences are shown in use of Chines language • In-market experts are essential!!!
- 17. obaninternational.com • Pictograms came from picture drawings – basic objects • Ideographs – Visual representations of abstract ideas • Compound Pictographs / Ideographs - combinations • Chinese characters are used to in Japanese language and also Korean areas. • Pinyin is a way to represent characters and express in Chinese language using the Roman alphabet 17 Group of Characters and Pinyin
- 18. obaninternational.com18 Pictograms came from picture drawings – basic objects
- 19. obaninternational.com19 Ideographs – Visual representations of abstract ideas
- 20. obaninternational.com20 Compound Pictographs / Ideographs - combinations
- 21. obaninternational.com21 Pinyin is a way to represent characters and express in Chinese language using the Roman alphabet
- 24. obaninternational.com24 Ask Lei! VIDEO OF LEI PRONOUNCING
- 25. obaninternational.com • Adopted in The People’s Republic of China in 1949 to promote literacy after the Communist Party came to power. • Spoken version: Only Mandarin (Northern dialect of Mandarin)! • Known as Baihua (plain language) • Not all writers and Chinese speaking areas (Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Macau) wanted to adopt the new style 25 Simplified Chinese Characters
- 26. obaninternational.com26 Traditional VS simplified Characters
- 27. obaninternational.com27 Political tension between China and Taiwan, an example
- 28. Chinese language and our clients 28
- 29. obaninternational.com29 ETHNICITY • China is made up of 56 distinct ethnic groups. • Han Chinese (also called Han) is an ethnic group from China. • 92% of the Chinese population and more than 97% of the Taiwanese population are Han. • Out of the entire human population in the world, 19% are Han Chinese. • The Han dynasty was one of the first to unify almost all of China
- 30. obaninternational.com30 Chinese Population Countries or territories when Chinese is an official language
- 31. obaninternational.com31 Which Chinese for which market? Target Market Written Spoken China Simplified Mandarin Hong Kong Traditional Cantonese Macau Traditional Cantonese Taiwan Traditional Mandarin Min Nan (Fujian Dialect) Cantonese Singapore Simplified Mandarin English
- 32. obaninternational.com32 Which hreflang, ISO 15294 and URL code? Target Market Target Market Simplified or Traditional? zh-HK Chinese - Hong Kong SAR Traditional zh-MO Chinese - Macau SAR Traditional zh-CN Chinese - China Simplified zh-TW Chinese - Taiwan Traditional zh-SG Chinese - Singapore Simplified zh-CHS or zh-HANS Chinese (Simplified) Simplified zh-CHT or zh-HANT Chinese (Traditional) Traditional zh-HANT-HK , zh-HANS-SG, zh-HANT-MO etc. are working too. ZH is the norm, based on a native name of the Chinese language Zhōngwén and a Chinese adjective for Chinese, Zhōnghuá. HAN is related to the Han Chinese ethnicity.
- 33. obaninternational.com • Always think “simplified or traditional Chinese” when it comes to Websites. • Political impact can be huge between Taiwan and China and sometimes Hong-Kong, Macau and mainland China too. You can and need to educate your clients on this matter. • A good Chinese localisation can only be done with the right spoken language, the right written language and the right market to target! 33 Summary