I'm planning to learn to speak mandarin, and I already know how to speak cantonese right now. I can't write in chinese but I can read enough to get me like the basics of a newspaper article. But I'm wondering how long will it take for me to learn mandarin approximately. Like, I'm planning to start from books and having my aunts teach me. And then, possibly take a mandarin course depending on how much I learn from the books.

Is the transition from Cantonese to Mandarin a hard one to make, or will it be easy to learn how to speak/understand mandarin? I want to be as fluent as possible. Anyone know about how long it will take? And any tips.

Since you know cantonese already, it should be quite and easy transaction between the two. They are very similar to each other. I would recomend taking a course in it and also watch Mandarin TV such as music and shows. Youtube has some good stuff. In high school there sould be a course so you could take that. Try and get every opportunity you can to practice and way to learn more and be more fluent.

There's no set time on how long it will take. Each person is different. Some are slower learners than others so it depends how much effort you put into it.

Too bad our school doesn't offer a mandarin program, or else I'd be the first to sign up. We do have schools which you can take on Saturday mornings and they act as a credit towards graduation.

I'm willing to put a lot of effort into this, and hopefully the transition between the two will be fairly simple.

That saturday school sounds nice since it does give you a credit. YOu should give that a try unless Saturday's are bad for you.

Saturdays are.. alright, though sometimes family events come up on that day and missing a class would be like skipping school.

Learning Mandarian if you know Cantonese is really easy. The hard thing is learning Cantonese if you already know Mandarian.

I prefer in cantonese then mandarine

I go on Saturday also into the Chinese train… and afterwards go I also still to kung fu the course XD Cantonese is my native language and therefore I can do uach Cantonese better than Mandarin

Yeah thats the same by me!!.. I speak Cantonese and I'm learning Mandarin!! ^^ I Go to a chinese school every Saturday..^^ and their are a lot of Chinese too^^..

Mandarin is easier than Cantonese. Even easier with pinyin and if you already know the words in cantonese.