It is a breakthrough that you guys saw CTF spoke in English in an TV interview. He usually talk in either Mandarin and Cantonese. Its a good try at least.
Malaysians are multilingual. We speak different kind of languages. But alot of Non-Malaysians think that we are very smart to be able to speak at least 4kinds of language. We are not that smart actually.
Most malaysians function with only one language and its usually their respective mother tongues. They can also speak one other language apart from their mother tongues but most of the time not very gramatically correct. The educated mostly speak English,Malay and their respective mother tongues if they are not Malay. Some cant even speak their mother tongues as the elite have adopted English.
***banana*** I am used to being called a banana by all my friends. My parents have always spoken to me in English. They speak to each other in English even though they can speak Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin. I think every Malaysian who have lived in Malaysia can speak Malay. I understand most of what is being spoken by my friends most of the time and I can hold a conversation in Cantonese. Some of my Chinese customers are still very surprised because I can't speak Mandarin. They don't comprehend the reason. I am in the process of enrolling for Mandarin classes heheh and it is going to cost me a bomb . When I was young my mum wanted to enrol me in Mandarin classes, but nooooooooo smart me said I did not want to because I was lazy. Now I have to pay in $AUD from my own money. Karma is a B****
YES, Malaysians must study Malay as the national language & pass it with credit to gain entry into local public universities. But many Chinese Msians in this forum (it being an English forum) can speak Chinese(i.e. Mandarin or one of their native dialects) but cant read & write Chinese. The part that confuses a lot of non Msians is we stimes speak in a mix of Malay, English & Chinese, all in the same paragraph. Most are called 'banana' person - meaning Yellow skinned outside, white(westernized inside) due to this. Most Chinese Malaysians below 55 can speak Malay & Chinese. The 'English' educated can speak English quite well. CTF's partner, LWW seems to be in this category, LWW's English is good. LCW & WMC are Chinese educated. KKK is English Ed, TBH is Chinese ed. Anyway, Zhang Jiewen will be confused with all the different languages in Msia, in China already have so many different dialects.
i think typically the north (Perlis, Kedah and Penang) will speak hokkien, whereas in the central states (Perak, Selangor, Pahang) will speak cantonese and the south (Johor, NS, Melaka) speak mandarin? of course, there are loads of people who speak all 3, so sometimes it's difficult if you meet some one from malaysia and want to choose a language/dialect to converse in.
Zhang Jiewen should find no problem in Malaysia . Zhang Jiewen should find no problem in Malaysia because Cantonese is widely spoken in Malaysia. .
Chris, I meant, Malay & English. She will have headache with so much rojak, example - "If you go kampung, can get me this minyak cap kelapa, they say very good for 'ci hong'", all 3 languages in one sentence. If, if, the couple decide to reside in Msia & Zhang choose to be a coach, the non Chinese players or Baba Nyonya descent would have problem understanding her, that was why Li Mao didnt coach non Chinese speaking players. But if PJB can coach Japan without being able to speak Japanese & Li Mao can coach Korea MS without speaking Korean.... Zhang should have no problem, the Msian camp would very joyfully welcome her, esp WD. Like Dreamz said, Cantonese is mostly in central - Selangor, Perak, Wilayah. I dont speak Cantonese, Southern states use Mandarin, Zhang should have no problem with Mandarin.
If` Zhang decides to play for malaysia...she has to wait for 2 yrs unless she can get special exemption from China. I am not sure that Zhang can speak Cantonese...I know both of them converse in Mandarin...
LYB would flip! i doubt she'll end up playing badminton for MAS though, in any case, she might not have a decent partner. someone needs to hook up another MAS player with yang wei!
to those who dont know who is Mandy, it is zhang jie wen english name ants, i think now its the right time ..rite? haha
Isn't Zhang Jie Wen a Cantonese? I thougtht she comes from Guandong province. If so, she can probably speak better Cantonese plus Mandarin than most Malaysian Chinese.
Zhang Jiewen was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China . Yes, Zhang Jiewen was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China. .
Her Cantonese is better than me... yes, i would agree with you that she speaks better canton than malaysian or even hongkies. But i think she is used to Mandarin.. sometimes i speak to her in Canto.. she reply in Mandarin.. so weird. Yang Wei speaks good cantonese as well.
