Colloquial Cantonese vs Standard Mandarin

 I can't take credit for this post because I came across an excellent website that lists the differences between the vocabulary used by Cantonese speakers and the equivalent vocabulary used by Mandarin speakers.

The only difference is that whenever I'm watching Chinese subtitles on TV, the subtitles are usually in Mandarin. In Chinese-American school, I was never taught to write the colloquial Chinese way. Even the lyrics to almost all pop music is written by using written Mandarin instead of colloquial Cantonese. That's another reason why a foreigners may not understand what a singer is singing.

In a way, I feel like I'm left out of something really awesome by not recognizing all the vocabulary on the list. I believe most Cantonese-American students are confused when presented with the Mandarin equivalent and give up easily when they do not understand the meaning of the Mandarin equivalent.

Actually, I'm sure all Cantonese-American speakers know all the Cantonese words below, but may not recognize it when it is written colloquially. If you ever check out a Hong Kong gossip magazine, you will find a lot of Chinese colloquial words in print because the publications actually quote what the celebrities are saying word-for-word. Have fun!

Keep in mind though that this list uses the Yale romanization method for pronouncing Cantonese while I tend to use the Jyutping romanization on this blog whenever I can. Perhaps, I will create a file later on with this information.

Source: http://www.omniglot.com/chinese/cantonese.htm