Is Cantonese harder to learn than Mandarin?
For English speakers, Cantonese is much more difficult. Mandarin has a much more refined grammar than the rustic Cantonese, and is therefore easier. Mandarin also has more phonemes and so fewer tones. It has 4 tones, plus a ‘non-tone’. Cantonese has 7 or 6 tones, depending on whether you are talking about Canton dialect or Hong Kong dialect. Some people say 9 tones, but that is not accurate. The number 9 is used by some for simplicity in counting, but 2 of the 9 are duplicated. Cantonese also has a number of sounds that are far more difficult for English speakers than the sounds of Mandarin. Lastly, writing is extremely important in learning a language. Unless you go to Hong Kong, you will not learn to write in Cantonese, and even there it is limited. Cantonese speakers may write Chinese characters, but they are not writing Cantonese. Only Mandarin is written. The reason is that people learn to write only at school, and all schools are taught in Mandarin.
