<blockquote>
<p>From my answer to this question: <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/33498/is-referring-to-mandarin-as-just-chinese-problematic/33499#33499">Is referring to Mandarin as just &quot;Chinese&quot; problematic?</a></p>
<p><em>All Chinese write in one standard language system. (Standard Written Chinese - SWC) People who speak different dialects in China are expected to communicate with each others using the official dialect Mandarin in speech and the standard written Chinese (SWC) in writing</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The answer to your question is 'no'. If someone went to school and learned how to write in standard written Chinese, he would also learned how to speak Mandarin, regardless of what his native dialect was.</p>
<p>There is no need to communicate in writing when one Chinese encounter another Chinese, because ALL Chinese are expected to know how to speak one common language (Putonghua/ Mandarin)- and learning this language is mandatory in China.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-30T06:23:27.527Z
Realistically, many old people still don't know it. I can't say I've experienced them using writing to communicate across dialectical boundaries, though; they just repeat themselves but louder, as old people the world over are wont to do.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-30T06:59:57.470Z
@ Stumpy Joe Pete  There is a saying "口在路邊" .  As long as most of the population in a region can speak their native dialects  and Mandarin, a visitor  can easily find someone to translate for him when dealing with older folks who can't speak Mandarin
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-30T03:48:48.313Z
2019-04-30T03:48:48.313Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
Tang Ho
<p>No, of course not, that's what Putonghua is for! As long as you learn some Putonghua, you can talk to <em>most</em> people in China.</p>

<p>Examples:</p>

<p>Not 20Km from here is 高淳。They speak an old Southern Song dynasty dialect. If you only speak Putonghua, you won't understand them. However, they all also speak Putonghua, they learn it in school.</p>

<p>My gf can speak to her grandma, who is from a little village in Hunan, because grandma went to school and can speak Putonghua (though they tend to say H as F, the opposite of 福建). Granddad never learnt Putonghua, so conversation is limited, but he understands Putonghua to a degree.</p>

<p>I know 2 girls from 西藏。 Not sure what language they speak and they have no English, but we can talk in Putonghua. </p>

<p>I've met students from 广州。They tend to have a funny accent in Putonghua sometimes, but so do I as a foreigner!</p>

<p>As to "communicate in writing" I notice many times, if you don't understand a word, people will often write the word with their finger on the palm of their left hand.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T22:33:52.787Z
2019-04-29T22:33:52.787Z
Pedroski
<blockquote>
  <p>However, all three use more or less the same writing system. So, I was wondering if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I'll start off by quoting a Wikipedia section on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgar_Latin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Vulgar Latin</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>By its nature, Vulgar Latin varied greatly by region and by time period, though several major divisions can be seen. Vulgar Latin dialects began to significantly diverge from Classical Latin by the third century during the classical period of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, throughout the sixth century, the most widely spoken dialects were still similar to and mostly mutually intelligible with Classical Latin. In terms of regional differences for the whole Latin period, "we can only glimpse a tiny amount of divergence with the actual written data. <strong>In texts of all kinds, literary, technical, and all others, the written Latin of the first five or six centuries A.D. looks as if it were territorially homogeneous, even in its 'vulgar' register.</strong> It is only in the later texts, of the seventh and eighth centuries, that we are able to see in the texts geographical differences that seem to be the precursors of similar differences in the subsequent Romance languages."</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you imagine an alternate universe where speakers of French, Spanish, Italian, etc. never wrote their own languages up until even now, but all wrote in Latin instead, then suddenly Italian culture became dominant in a politically unified Europe, subsequently basing a modern written standard on Italian, this provides a kind of analogy to China of today.</p>

<p>Yes, Chinese languages are traditionally written with the same writing system. However, the <em>de-facto</em> written standard was not in the different languages' vernacular; prior to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">May Fourth Movement</a>, written communication was done in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Chinese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Classical Chinese</a>, while afterwards the national standard, called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Standard Chinese</a>, became based on a bunch of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mandarin</a> languages.</p>

<p>To be clear, people who speak Hokkien, Cantonese, and Mandarin all write in the national standard as a Chinese <em>lingua franca</em>. Communication is <strong>not</strong> done by speakers of different languages writing in their own vernaculars such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Written Cantonese</a>, Written Wu (<a href="https://wuu.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%81%E9%9D%A2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia site here</a>), Written Gan (<a href="https://gan.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%81%E9%9D%A2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia site here</a>), etc, although in principle these vernaculars are highly readable with a minimal amount of training by non-speakers.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:41:12.057Z
Does not answer the question
Tyler Durden
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:42:05.543Z
@TylerDurden you asked if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate. The answer is, they use Standard Written Chinese, not their own vernacular, for cross-communication. If it does not answer your question, you might want to rephrase your question.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T17:10:28.563Z
Oh I see...you haven't dissociated spoken language from written language. Chinese people have been writing languages that they don't actually speak for about 2,000 years, and that's still the case today in Hong Kong, where the majority of the population naturally speaks Cantonese but are taught to write in a Mandarin-based language. Until you accept that it's possible for people to write in languages that they don't speak, you won't understand how Chinese works.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:32:56.763Z
2019-04-29T16:39:27.723Z
2019-04-29T16:39:27.723Z
dROOOze
<p>My understanding is that there are multiple languages in China, for example, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin, and they are not mutually intelligible. However, all three use more or less the same writing system. So, I was wondering if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate in everyday situations.</p>

<p>For example, if a Chinese tourist from one province is in a different one, do they write their questions down on a piece of paper when they need help from someone who does not speak their language?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:32:40.157Z
This doesn't answer your question: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1514/are-there-differences-in-writing-between-chinese-languages-such-as-mandarin-and?rq=1?
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:34:31.070Z
Possible duplicate of [Are there differences in writing between Chinese languages, such as Mandarin and Shanghainese](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1514/are-there-differences-in-writing-between-chinese-languages-such-as-mandarin-and)
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:40:42.360Z
@droooze I am not asking about variations in writing.
Tyler Durden
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T16:56:05.460Z
`For example, if a Chinese tourist from one province is in a different one, do they write their questions down on a piece of paper when they need help from someone who does not speak their language?` Yes, they write their question down. No, they don't write the question in their own vernacular language, they write in Standard Written Chinese because the Chinese government mandates education in Standard Written Chinese across the country, no matter what the regional language is.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-29T17:25:22.087Z
The answer is in this post too  https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/33498/is-referring-to-mandarin-as-just-chinese-problematic/33499#33499 All Chinese write in one standard language system. (Standard Written Chinese - SWC)

People who speak different dialects in China are expected to communicate with each others using the official dialect Mandarin in speech and the standard written Chinese (SWC) in writing.
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-02T13:45:44.610Z
This might not be related. I know Chinese people sometimes use writings to communicate with Japanese.
Xuehong Zhang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-03T01:13:58.470Z
@XuehongZhang That is definitely what I am trying to understand: how writing is used in everyday communication by people who use the Chinese writing system. Since writing is useless to cross communicate in alphabetic writing systems (like I use), I am curious to what extent it is practical and used in ideographic systems.
Tyler Durden
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-03T06:38:45.640Z
People usually don't write to communicate, unless they have to, that's just not how human society work. Chinese languages are strongly related, some of them are mutually intelligible, at some extent. More specifically, in China, people often use a common language called Mandarin(because of some reason, most Chinese can speak it, although not natively) to communicate, all its accent or dialects are highly mutually intelligible. If two people can't share mutually intelligible languages, but both of them are able to write SWC, then it works, if communication is a must in such case
炸鱼薯条德里克
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-03T10:18:44.163Z
@TylerDurden From my personal experience, it is really useful to use Chinese characters in Japan. I don’t speak any Japanese. But I recognised lots of writings (Kanji) there, and used writings to communicate with small restaurants’ owners, who don’t speak any Chinese. When I wrote something down, they would go “ah” and followed by some rapid Japanese which I had no idea! When they wrote something down, I could understand most of it.
Xuehong Zhang
<writing><topolect>
Do Chinese speaking different languages use written Chinese to communicate?
# Do Chinese speaking different languages use written Chinese to communicate?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-29)

My understanding is that there are multiple languages in China, for example, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin, and they are not mutually intelligible. However, all three use more or less the same writing system. So, I was wondering if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate in everyday situations.

For example, if a Chinese tourist from one province is in a different one, do they write their questions down on a piece of paper when they need help from someone who does not speak their language?

**Tags:** writing, topolect

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This doesn't answer your question: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1514/are-there-differences-in-writing-between-chinese-languages-such-as-mandarin-and?rq=1?  
> **username_2**: Possible duplicate of [Are there differences in writing between Chinese languages, such as Mandarin and Shanghainese](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1514/are-there-differences-in-writing-between-chinese-languages-such-as-mandarin-and)  
> **username_0**: @username_2 I am not asking about variations in writing.  
> **username_2**: `For example, if a Chinese tourist from one province is in a different one, do they write their questions down on a piece of paper when they need help from someone who does not speak their language?` Yes, they write their question down. No, they don't write the question in their own vernacular language, they write in Standard Written Chinese because the Chinese government mandates education in Standard Written Chinese across the country, no matter what the regional language is.  
> **username_3**: The answer is in this post too  https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/33498/is-referring-to-mandarin-as-just-chinese-problematic/33499#33499 All Chinese write in one standard language system. (Standard Written Chinese - SWC)  People who speak different dialects in China are expected to communicate with each others using the official dialect Mandarin in speech and the standard written Chinese (SWC) in writing.  
> **username_4**: This might not be related. I know Chinese people sometimes use writings to communicate with Japanese.  
> **username_0**: @username_4 That is definitely what I am trying to understand: how writing is used in everyday communication by people who use the Chinese writing system. Since writing is useless to cross communicate in alphabetic writing systems (like I use), I am curious to what extent it is practical and used in ideographic systems.  
> **username_5**: People usually don't write to communicate, unless they have to, that's just not how human society work. Chinese languages are strongly related, some of them are mutually intelligible, at some extent. More specifically, in China, people often use a common language called Mandarin(because of some reason, most Chinese can speak it, although not natively) to communicate, all its accent or dialects are highly mutually intelligible. If two people can't share mutually intelligible languages, but both of them are able to write SWC, then it works, if communication is a must in such case  
> **username_4**: @username_0 From my personal experience, it is really useful to use Chinese characters in Japan. I don’t speak any Japanese. But I recognised lots of writings (Kanji) there, and used writings to communicate with small restaurants’ owners, who don’t speak any Chinese. When I wrote something down, they would go “ah” and followed by some rapid Japanese which I had no idea! When they wrote something down, I could understand most of it.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-04-30. Score: 1

> From my answer to this question: [Is referring to Mandarin as just "Chinese" problematic?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/33498/is-referring-to-mandarin-as-just-chinese-problematic/33499#33499)
>
> *All Chinese write in one standard language system. (Standard Written Chinese - SWC) People who speak different dialects in China are expected to communicate with each others using the official dialect Mandarin in speech and the standard written Chinese (SWC) in writing*

The answer to your question is 'no'. If someone went to school and learned how to write in standard written Chinese, he would also learned how to speak Mandarin, regardless of what his native dialect was.

There is no need to communicate in writing when one Chinese encounter another Chinese, because ALL Chinese are expected to know how to speak one common language (Putonghua/ Mandarin)- and learning this language is mandatory in China.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: Realistically, many old people still don't know it. I can't say I've experienced them using writing to communicate across dialectical boundaries, though; they just repeat themselves but louder, as old people the world over are wont to do.  
> **username_3**: @ username_6 Joe username_6  There is a saying "口在路邊" .  As long as most of the population in a region can speak their native dialects  and Mandarin, a visitor  can easily find someone to translate for him when dealing with older folks who can't speak Mandarin  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2019-04-29. Score: 1

No, of course not, that's what Putonghua is for! As long as you learn some Putonghua, you can talk to *most* people in China.

Examples:

Not 20Km from here is 高淳。They speak an old Southern Song dynasty dialect. If you only speak Putonghua, you won't understand them. However, they all also speak Putonghua, they learn it in school.

My gf can speak to her grandma, who is from a little village in Hunan, because grandma went to school and can speak Putonghua (though they tend to say H as F, the opposite of 福建). Granddad never learnt Putonghua, so conversation is limited, but he understands Putonghua to a degree.

I know 2 girls from 西藏。 Not sure what language they speak and they have no English, but we can talk in Putonghua.

I've met students from 广州。They tend to have a funny accent in Putonghua sometimes, but so do I as a foreigner!

As to "communicate in writing" I notice many times, if you don't understand a word, people will often write the word with their finger on the palm of their left hand.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-04-29. Score: 1

> However, all three use more or less the same writing system. So, I was wondering if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate.

I'll start off by quoting a Wikipedia section on [Vulgar Latin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgar_Latin):

> *By its nature, Vulgar Latin varied greatly by region and by time period, though several major divisions can be seen. Vulgar Latin dialects began to significantly diverge from Classical Latin by the third century during the classical period of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, throughout the sixth century, the most widely spoken dialects were still similar to and mostly mutually intelligible with Classical Latin. In terms of regional differences for the whole Latin period, "we can only glimpse a tiny amount of divergence with the actual written data. **In texts of all kinds, literary, technical, and all others, the written Latin of the first five or six centuries A.D. looks as if it were territorially homogeneous, even in its 'vulgar' register.** It is only in the later texts, of the seventh and eighth centuries, that we are able to see in the texts geographical differences that seem to be the precursors of similar differences in the subsequent Romance languages."*

If you imagine an alternate universe where speakers of French, Spanish, Italian, etc. never wrote their own languages up until even now, but all wrote in Latin instead, then suddenly Italian culture became dominant in a politically unified Europe, subsequently basing a modern written standard on Italian, this provides a kind of analogy to China of today.

Yes, Chinese languages are traditionally written with the same writing system. However, the *de-facto* written standard was not in the different languages' vernacular; prior to the [May Fourth Movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement), written communication was done in [Classical Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Chinese), while afterwards the national standard, called [Standard Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese), became based on a bunch of [Mandarin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese) languages.

To be clear, people who speak Hokkien, Cantonese, and Mandarin all write in the national standard as a Chinese *lingua franca*. Communication is **not** done by speakers of different languages writing in their own vernaculars such as [Written Cantonese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese), Written Wu ([Wikipedia site here](https://wuu.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%81%E9%9D%A2)), Written Gan ([Wikipedia site here](https://gan.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%81%E9%9D%A2)), etc, although in principle these vernaculars are highly readable with a minimal amount of training by non-speakers.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Does not answer the question  
> **username_2**: @username_0 you asked if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate. The answer is, they use Standard Written Chinese, not their own vernacular, for cross-communication. If it does not answer your question, you might want to rephrase your question.  
> **username_2**: Oh I see...you haven't dissociated spoken language from written language. Chinese people have been writing languages that they don't actually speak for about 2,000 years, and that's still the case today in Hong Kong, where the majority of the population naturally speaks Cantonese but are taught to write in a Mandarin-based language. Until you accept that it's possible for people to write in languages that they don't speak, you won't understand how Chinese works.  

---

