Learning Chinese Dialects

[er2]

Singapore Armes Forces seems to be a good place to learn Hokkien from scratch, at least the swear words.

Jokes aside - if you don’t speak any Chinese yet I’m sure you’re out of luck with regards to structured learning. I had classmates - native classmates with fluent Cantonese and Mandarin - who struggled to find places that teach Shanghainese, so that he could speak to his elderly relatives in the mainland.

If you speak some, academia might be your best guess. I think there might be a few places that teach Fujianhua / Hokkien in Taiwan to casual learners, but all else I have seen were courses for advanced sinology students.

[Elegiaque]

If you're serious, you can contact the linguistics departments at universities here and they can likely put you in touch, maybe with a masters or PhD student from one of those communities. Their ability to teach though may not be good.

I have a possible recommendation for Hakka if you want to PM me.

Why are you interested?

[imparanoic]

i don't think there are any tutoring centres for hakka, however, large of british born chinese can speak proficient hakka is probably your best bet, note that taiwanese hakka and malaysian hakka share similar pronounation but there significant differences as well

[Gatts]

Original Post Deleted

All the examples quoted are Chinese languages though.

Chinese "dialects" would be for instance variations in those different languages based on location, for example Shandong Mandarin vs. Taiwan Mandarin etc. The term "dialects" for the above is only used in mainland for propaganda purposes in order to try to push Mandarin as the official standard.

[GentleGeorge]

All the examples quoted are Chinese languages though.

A language is a dialect with an army and a navy

[Gatts]

A language is a dialect with an army and a navy

That is a typical quote taken out of context in this case. Any linguistical department in any University, outside of China, will tell you that the Chinese languages, etc. Shanghainese, Mandarin, Cantonese,... all come from the same Sino-Tibetan languages family in just the same way German and English belong to the Germanic languages family. Calling the Chinese languages "dialects" would make German, English, Dutch, Swedish,... "dialects" by this reasoning. Here is a good starter:

'Chinese' is not a language

[bluesky3000]

Malay too in the army

[flameproof]

Language vs. dialect
It gets clearer when you rephrase:

Anyone who can point me in the direction of tutor schools etc who specialise in teaching European dialects to beginners, like French, Dutsch, German, Greek etc?

Outside the big languages, Mandarin, Cantonese you will find very little learning material. I recall that I saw a book about Shanghainese. Check the big bookstores in Shanghai or Beijing. Or check online. They will be all in Chinese though.

https://find.ruten.com.tw/s/?q=9787567128941
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=583167466437

[chingleutsch]

When I had a job that required a knowledge of a modicum of a Tibetan dialect, one of the local universities in the area was able to put in me contact with some advanced English language students from that area. The students had the advantage that they understood the hassles of learning a foreign language, and both sides benefited from language exchanges.

You could do worse than to to ask around / put up notices some university campuses. And there are also a number of churches around which use very assorted Chineses.

For Toishanese, head over to northwestern Macau peninsula - there's a lot of it spoken there.

[GentleGeorge]

That is a typical quote taken out of context in this case. Any linguistical department in any University, outside of China, ...

And that's pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo.

Your very next sentence proves the wisdom of the age-old adage.