Comment

I think anyone in India and Africa speaks 4 languages easily.

their regional language (i.e. Masaai, Yoruba, Xhosa)
the over-regional language (Arabic, Swahili)
a coloniser language (English, French)
and possibly just enough of a neighbouring regional language

I think many Chinese people are also bilingual (i.e. Wu+ always mandarin). They often learn another language in school (English or something geographically closer, like Korean).

source

Sort:hotnew top

DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

I think many Chinese people are also bilingual

Yes… some are even tri-lingual because of village dialect (eg: Taishanese) + province dialect (eg: Cantonese) + national dialect (Mandarin)

Unfortunately, the PRC government is heavily pushing Mandarin and some of the local variants (aka: “dialects”) are slowly dying… some kids in Guangzhou don’t even speak Cantonese anymore…

(i.e. Wu+ always mandarin)

Shanghaiese is semi-dead… from what I heard

Cantonese is slowly limping its way forward only because they have Hong Kong TV, I don’t think there are many TV shows in Shanghaiese.

If Hong Kong falls… Cantonese is gonna die… :(

source