Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The official languages of Hong Kong are English and Chinese. While Chinese can be called
the world's most widely spoken language, it actually has innumerable dialects - people from
Beijing can't understand a word that people from Hong Kong say; in fact they can't even
understand what people from Shanghai say. What has bound the country together over thou-
sands of years is the written language.
Each Chinese character represents an idea - a meaning, not a sound. There are about 50,000
characters, and some 5,000 of these are in common use. Chinese is traditionally written in
columns, read from top to bottom and right to left, but today you often see printed Chinese
characters presented much like a European language.
Putonghua, or Mandarin, is China's official language. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong
and South China.
The following approximations of everyday Cantonese words and greetings may help:
Good morning
Jo sahn
Good afternoon
Ng on
Good evening
Mang on
Good night
Jo tow
Goodbye
Joy geen
Please (for service)
M goi
Please (invitation)
Ching
Thank you (for service)
M goi
Thank you (for a gift)
Daw jeh
chop
seal or stamp on a document
