How do you deal with converting what you know in Cantonese into mandarin? What is the biggest problems with the two interacting? I started learning Cantonese before I started mandarin. And now I'm majoring in mandarin, but I often find myself reading in Cantonese and when I go to say something I instantly think of the canto which is great...but not with a teacher who is from Harbin
OMG you don't realize how long I've been waiting for someone to ask me this.
I have the exact same issue as you; when I read Chinese, I ALWAYS read it in Cantonese. The only time that Mandarin comes in handy is when I'm writing formal stuff in Chinese. I obviously can't use Canto slang in writing, (even though it's tempting), so I need to speak in Mandarin in order to write in the standard, accepted way.
One of my problems is that I'm guessing the pronunciation half the time (I'm sure you do this a lot too), because there are a bunch of patterns between Mando and Canto. (理, 氣, 地, 起 all go from a "ei" sound to an "i" sound in Mandarin, although "ei" can also be converted to an "ei" sound in Mandarin (美, 味, 尾))
I think the only way we can fix this bad habit is by finding a way to separate the two dialects??? Cantonese will always feel the most natural to you, but you need to learn to incorporate Mandarin into your Chinese knowledge as well. So if you catch yourself reading something in Cantonese, test yourself and try to figure out the pronunciations and tones in Mandarin. I feel like that's the only way to improve your Mandarin ;-;
Quite often, you'll also have trouble figuring out the right tones to use, but this just has to come with practice. You already have the vocabulary from Cantonese, but now you just have to go through your mental word bank and slowly convert everything over. T_T
This sounds like a gruelling task, but if you group Chinese words into clumps, it becomes easier. THIS APPLIES TO ALL CHINESE LEARNERS AS WELL: Chinese words often occur in groups of 2 or 3, so pronunciations and tones become easier to remember, since they're in nice packaged units. For example: 沒可能 is a lot easier to memorize as a 3-word unit than it is to memorize each character's tone and pronunciation individually.
Another thing that I notice is when I'm speaking in Mandarin, I need to pause, think about what I'm gonna say in Cantonese, convert all the grammar structures to Mandarin, and then convert all the pronunciations/tones. This goes straight back to prying apart the two dialects, so challenge yourself to think SOLELY in Mandarin until it becomes second nature. (which is hard, I know :/)
Finally, I think reading a bit about Chinese grammar now and then is useful, because it reinforces your knowledge of existing grammar structures in Cantonese, and/or enriches your knowledge of natural speech patterns in Mandarin. You can also make a table comparing various grammatical patterns between Canto --> Mando, and then remember to apply them when speaking.
Yeah, sorry if that wasn't much help~ I'm kind of in the same boat as you LOOOL
