Cantonese should be kept

A questionnaire about limiting Cantonese using in programs of GZTV caused the discussion of whether Cantonese should be kept using in public at present.

Some the visitors and some immigrants believe that Guangzhou is an international city in which mandarin known as the official language of China should be widely used. Cantonese, which is regionally used, setting a barrier between the locals and visitors in daily communication, should not be used in public area and Mass media. Limiting using Cantonese may help in decreasing the feeling of strange and inconvenience to enhance the level of city internationalization. But in fact, most of the locals can speak both Cantonese and mandarin because of school education.  More visitors settle down and make their living in Guangzhou even they couldn’t speak Cantonese. There aren’t any serious troubles though the accent of some locals may cause misunderstanding sometimes.

In addition, I believe that both locals and visitors should be able to enjoy their lives by watching TV programs from more than 100 channels. In Guangzhou, there’re less than ten TV channels broadcasting programs in Cantonese while much more channels in mandarin can be received include CCTV and Satellite TV. Even in GDTV, three fifth of channels are providing mandarin speaking programs. It’s unnecessary to reduce Cantonese speaking programs to satisfy visitor’s demand.

Moreover, Cantonese, which is an important part of local culture, is not an enemy of urban internationalizing. Montreal is international city in Canada keep speaking French instead of English. In Barcelona, Although Catalan is still widely used in daily life rather than Spanish, people from all over the world can enjoy their lives. In fact, no city would be developed into an international one by limiting the use of a language.

As the discussion above, the recommendation of limiting Cantonese is ridiculous while mandarin has already dominated in mass media. As a significant symbol of the local culture, Cantonese can still benefit citizen identity which is important for the development of Guangzhou.

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