Why do people refer to the language of China as Chinese? This is incorrect !

@Munish don’t know why but reminds me of the old line .. what do Chinese call breakfast ….?

Breakfast.

@JohnPhilpin 👍

@Munish What’s incorrect about it?

@KyleEssary People often just say “Chinese” because it’s what they say in the media and by lots in the west. Mandarin is the main language in China, followed by lots of other languages too, like Cantonese, Hokkien, Tibetan, and Uyghur.

@Munish Interesting. I hadn’t noticed. I speak Chinese: Mandarin (advanced) and Cantonese (beginner). Most of my Chinese friends will just use ‘Chinese’ to speak of their language and clarify the dialect if asked. Here in Malaysia, the main word used is 华语, which means ‘language of the Chinese.’

@KyleEssary oooh well I have learnt for something for sure. As I noticed Chinese people I work with in China, thy never correct those who say it, but if you discuss it, they then go into the fact it is Mandarin. Same with Indians in India.

@Munish the Indians in India fall back to Mandarin ❓😂

@JohnPhilpin haha maybe some do. More like Hindi,Bengali, Martathi, Telugu, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujratii, English and many others

@Munish Interesting and not something I’ve thought about before! I think you’re right but, also that people will often use Chinese to mean Mandarin day to day as @KyleEssary says. I tried to talk to my Chinese wife about it and she says ‘Chinese’ is fine. Though, I wonder what speakers of the other language would say. As another data point, at school Chinese colleagues will says ask children to use 中文 and not 普通话.

@Omrrc I like the fact you are sharing opinions and correcting me. Maybe I am being overly polite from conversations in the early 2010s and the world has moved on. I will stand down from my high horse. Thanks both for sharing your thoughts.