Allerdings nicht aus der unsrigen, sondern aus der chinesischen Community New Yorks. Dort wird das traditionelle Kantonesisch abgelöst durch Mandarin, den Dialekt der Mehrheit der Neu-Einwanderer aus China.
Nun lassen selbst Kantonesisch sprechende Eltern ihre Kinder in Mandarin unterrichten, damit diese sich in den New Yorker chinesischen Zirkeln verständigen können.
Alteingesessene Sino-Amerikaner finden sich in ihrem eigenen Viertel nicht mehr zurecht, weil dort Mandarin dominant geworden ist.
Und niemand findet diese Parallelgesellschaft problematisch.
“I can’t even order food on East Broadway,” said Jan Lee, 44, a furniture designer who has lived all his life in Chinatown and speaks Cantonese. “They don’t speak English; I don’t speak Mandarin. I’m just as lost as everyone else.”
Now Mandarin is pushing into Chinatown’s heart.
For most of the 100 years that the New York Chinese School, on Mott Street, has offered language classes, nearly all have taught Cantonese. Last year, the numbers of Cantonese and Mandarin classes were roughly equal. And this year, Mandarin classes outnumber Cantonese three to one, even though most students are from homes where Cantonese is spoken, said the principal, Kin S. Wong.
Some Cantonese-speaking parents are deciding it is more important to point their children toward the future than the past — their family’s native dialect — even if that leaves them unable to communicate well with relatives in China.