User talk:Darabo

Welcome!

Hello, Darabo, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! -- The Red Pen of Doom 16:27, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Languages of Hong Kong[edit]

Hey --- this reply is a bit long, so I'm putting it to your talk page. My opinion is, learn Cantonese. If you try to learn Mandarin in Hong Kong, you will find few opportunities to practise it, and you'll mix it up with the Cantonese you hear all the time. And I am not sure which is your home country, but if there are any Chinese people there, it is much more likely they are Mandarin speakers --- so once you go back home, you'll still have an opportunity to learn Mandarin.

The University of Hong Kong uses English as their medium of instruction, so you don't really need to learn any other language to understand your classes. Most of the students are Cantonese mother tongue speakers from Hong Kong, but if you're staying in a student hostel, a lot of your hallmates will probably be Mandarin speakers from mainland China (since a lot of the local students live at home). On the other hand, once you go off-campus, Mandarin is next to useless --- some shop assistants, waiters, etc. may be able to speak it, but they will universally prefer to reply to you in English if they think you can understand it.

If you have more general questions about Hong Kong, you may be better off asking on some HK-specific forums like:

Or e-mail me. Cheers, cab (talk) 18:07, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]