Message from dsenteno

[Anonymous]

There was an article in the Los Angeles Times on 1-3-05 that stated that among chinese immigrants Cantonese Chinese is becoming a secondary language to Mandarin Chinese in the United States. For a long time Cantonese was the most used language among Chinese immigrants, because the majority of immigrants came from the area in the south around Hong Kong. However, in the last few years there has been an influx of immigrants from Northern China and they speak Mandarin, as do most Chinese. So the Cantonese people have trouble communicating with people from there own country. The Cantonese immigrants are fluent in English but in order to do business in the Asian they are also being forced to learn Mandarin. So two languages are not enough in order to do business in Asian communities of Los Angeles. One must be trilingual to function in the Chinese/ American asian community.