Encouraging your kids or students to read Chinese childrens books or listen to Chinese audiobooks will help them to learn a second language.



Read on for some interesting information about the Chinese language!..



Where is it spoken?Mandarin (sometimes referred to as Standard Chinese) is the official language of China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Nearly 1 billion people around the world speak Mandarin, more than any other language.



Cantonese (sometimes referred to as Traditional Chinese) is spoken in and around the area of Canton, in southern China. There about 80 million Cantonese speakers in the world. Chinese people living overseas more frequently speak Cantonese than Mandarin.



How Many People Speak a Chinese Language in the US? According to 2016 US Census estimates, there are over 3 million Chinese language speakers (of all varieties and dialects) in the US. There are large Chinese language speaking populations in New York, California, Texas and New Jersey. There are about as many Mandarin speakers as Cantonese speakers in the US, and also many others residents who speak other dialects.



Interesting Facts About Chinese Languages



Mandarin and Cantonese are both tonal languages, meaning intonation and pitch affect the meaning of words. Chinese languages have no verb conjugation, gender-specific nouns or tenses (past, present, future).



Pinyin is a method of writing Mandarin words using the Roman alphabet.



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