Kampala Mandarin School 🇺🇬 🇨🇳

Chinese is Diverse! It is important to note here that spoken Chinese is not just one language- It is composed of several dialects classified under Putonghua or the Modern Standard Chinese. Geography is one of the main reasons for the diversity of the Chinese language, considering the vastness of China. The spoken language is divided into five dialectical divisions, namely, Mandarin, Yue, Hakka, Wu, and Min. Mandarin is the most widely spoken, followed by Cantonese. Many people think that Chinese is the same as Mandarin, which is only one of the hundreds of dialects spoken around China and in Chinese diasporas around the world. But why is Mandarin (Chinese) called as such? In English, “Mandarin” means a Chinese empire’s official. It came from the word ”mandarim” (Portuguese) that originated from ”menteri,” which is a term from Malay. The origin of the Malay word was ”mantrin,” a Sanskrit term for ”counselor” or ”minister.” Thus, when requesting Chinese translation services, it is vital to specify which Chinese language variety you require.