19 points

i did the same in primary school, the result was the same as in the post lmao

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7 points

I would have had Tom speak Cantonese, throwing it all into chaos

But I know neither that nor Mandarin, so

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2 points
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If I am not.mistaken those are pronounciation and oral differences, the written chinese remains the same (traditional vs simplified is something that could be applied tho)

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2 points

Broadly speaking this is correct, but there are words that see more common usage in one dialect over the other, so reading a sentence written with chinese characters could inform you which dialect it is meant to be read in.

An incomplete example of this for someone who is more familiar with english would be detecting whether the author of a sentence is british or american based on the usage of different words with the same meaning e.g. torch vs flashlight.

Both dialects/variations of english share the same written alphabet but still maintain distinct differences that can be detected on paper based on key word usages (or even spelling in this case e.g. metre vs meter).

I say this is an incomplete example because the spoken variations between english dialects are generally not wide enough that one is incomprehensible to the other, but I think it helps demonstrate my point to people who are more familiar with latin/germanic languages. There are also some dialects of chinese that are relatively close wherein speakers of one can understand speakers of another. But in the case of cantonese and mandarin specifically, they are relatively dissimilar when it comes to how they are spoken.

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14 points

Me if I was Chinese

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9 points

規則???

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13 points

I don’t speak or read Chinese, so here’s the closest thing I’ve got: 何?!?

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2 points
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おまえはもう死んでいる。

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1 point

In case you’re really wondering, that’s Chinese for rule. OP didn’t put “rule” in the title :P

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2 points

I can use google translate, I figured out your comment. Just making a joke was all.

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1 point

It’s also Japanese for “what” which is a good show of confusion

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63 points
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💯

Can someone translate the rest?

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17 points
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Tom:你们会不会说中文吗

你: 是的

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17 points
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Lemme translate this back into English in order to demonstrate how bad this Chinese is:

Tom: Can you (plural) speak Chinese

You (singular): It is.

Edit: I’ll fix it for ya though :)

TOM: 我怎麼能去廁所?

你:你會不會說中文?

TOM: 當然了

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12 points

Whoa that’s traditional Chinese isn’t it? I’ve never seen that before outside of my books, which I promptly ignore until I get a hang on simplified 😂

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4 points

Haha thanks. I just did it while I was pooping, should’ve proofread 😂

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64 points

Tom: How can I get to the toilet?

You: Can you speak Chinese?

Tom: Yes of course

You: 那我們說中文吧 “Then let’s speak in Chinese”

Tom: 好的,沒問題 “Okay, no prob”

You: 前面右轉直走100米就到了 “Turn right then walk 100m and you’ll arrive”

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19 points

Now that teaching English is being phased out in China, this is the correct answer

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7 points

Really, any reason in particular for this change?

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1 point
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129 points

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1 point
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1 point
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