Quote:
Originally Posted by sabishiineko
bowed saing nihao(that is hello in chinese language) they all smiled
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Odds are they didn't understand you. Not to be insulting, but unless your accent is 100% spot-on, since they weren't expecting to hear you speak Chinese, they didn't understand it.
Alternatively, they understood you, but didn't speak Mandarin, so couldn't reply.
Quote:
Originally Posted by duo797
Really? I was under the impression that Chinese-Americans and Chinese-Canadians all spoke mandarin but wrote using traditional characters instead of simplified. Or perhaps I misinterpreted what you meant by this.
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Nope. Until recently, the vast majority of overseas Chinese were from the southern part of China, and likely spoke Cantonese (or Fujian-ese). It is only recently, with the opening up of China, that any significant fraction of overseas Chinese speak Mandarin.