What is the official language of Macao?

The official languages of Macau are Chinese and Portuguese respectively. In Macau, Cantonese is spoken by 85.7% of the residents, Fujian dialect by 4%, Mandarin by 3.2%, other Chinese dialects by 2.7%, Portuguese by .6%, and English (1.5%), Tagalog (Philippines, 1.3%) and other languages by the rest (21).

1. Cantonese (called "Cantonese" like Hong Kong) is the lingua franca of Macao, and the official language of Macao: According to the statistics of Macao Statistics Bureau, Cantonese Cantonese is the largest language in Macao, with 83.3% of the population using it daily, while 9% of the population can use Cantonese.

Cantonese is widely used in residents' daily life, work, government office, school education, news media, culture and entertainment, and it is also the same language among people of different origins living in Macao.

2. Modern standard Chinese (also known as Mandarin, Mandarin or Mandarin): Mandarin is the second largest language in Macao; Most of the people who use Putonghua in their daily lives are new immigrants from Chinese mainland, accounting for 5% of Macau's population. Due to the education policy implemented by the government, about 41% of Macao's total population can use Mandarin to varying degrees. For the convenience of explaining to foreign tourists, the tourist attractions will also use Putonghua in consideration of communication problems.

3. Minnan language: There are quite a few residents in the northern part of Macao whose ancestral home is in southern Fujian who can talk in Minnan language, so Minnan language can be regarded as common in the northern part of Macao; Minnan is the third largest language in Macao, with 3.7% of the population using it in daily life, while 6.9% of the population in Macao can speak it. The popularity of Minnan dialect in Macau also facilitates communication with tourists from Taiwan Province (the number is the third only after China and Hongkong).

4. English: English is the fourth largest language in Macao. People who use English in daily life account for 2.3% of Macao's population, mostly foreign immigrants, among whom Filipinos are the majority. At the same time, English, as an international language, is also quite popular in Macao, with 21.1% of the total population being able to speak English.

English is the most important business language in Macao. English is a compulsory course in primary and secondary schools in Macao, and English is also listed as the first teaching language in universities. In addition, English is also the language of communication between Chinese in Macao and different ethnic groups, and even Chinese in Macao use English when communicating with Portuguese.

5. Portuguese: Portuguese is the official language of Macao, but less than 1% of the residents use Portuguese as their daily life language, and only 2.4% of the population can speak Portuguese, making it the fifth largest language in Macao; Ordinary Chinese in Macau rarely use Portuguese as their first language. In the past, if you wanted to apply for government jobs, knowing Portuguese was an advantage.

But at present, Portuguese is popular in Macao, except for the government, legal departments, merchants or bookstores and communities related to Portugal, and Portuguese is basically not popular in Macao. In recent years, with the rise of emerging Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Angola, the trend of Macao residents to re-learn Portuguese shows signs of revival.

6. Macanese is a Macao language which is a mixture of Portuguese, Malay, Cantonese, English, ancient Portuguese and a little Dutch, Spanish and Italian. Portuguese is called "Ba Du", which was once a common language used by Macao nPatuáive Portuguese, but it has almost disappeared at present.

The last native Portuguese writer in Macau was Joseph Santos Ferreira. In October 26, Macao Native Education Association signed a cooperation agreement with six Portuguese communities, intending to apply for Macao native language as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

7. Other languages: Some immigrants from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and other countries will use their native languages mixed with Cantonese in their daily lives, but such dialects have not yet formed a systematic language like Macao dialects.

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1. Traditional Chinese: Traditional Chinese is used daily in Macao, and it is also the official text of Macao, which is the most important teaching text in Macao education. Like Hong Kong, Cantonese has an absolute advantage in society, so the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set is also adopted by Macao.

2. Cantonese vernacular: As the Cantonese accent is widely used in Macau, folk writing is often written in a way close to Cantonese vernacular. For example, "getting off" is written as "getting off" and "loading and unloading goods" is written as "loading and unloading goods".

3. Simplified Chinese: Since the opening of individual tours to Hong Kong and Macao, a large number of mainland tourists from China have visited Australia, so some hotels and casinos, advertisements, reminder slogans, etc. have signs in simplified Chinese. In some informal occasions of Macao people, such as quick notes and restaurant orders, simplified Chinese is used. In addition, many schools in Macau use simplified Chinese textbooks from mainland China, and some schools also allow students to answer in simplified Chinese characters in exams.

4. Portuguese: It is the official language of Macao, which is mostly used by the Portuguese population in Macao. Therefore, Portuguese is still the main word in the official documents of the government, but it does not play a big role in Chinese society.

The younger generation in Macau usually choose to study English, followed by Portuguese. However, in recent years, there has been an upward trend for Chinese residents to enroll in Portuguese-speaking courses organized by the Oriental Portuguese Institute, Portugal's official cultural institution in Australia, which is related to the fact that the Administration and Public Service Bureau stopped cooperating with the Macao Polytechnic Institute in 23 and instead cooperated with the Institute to organize Portuguese-speaking training courses for civil servants.

5. English: English is an indispensable language in the international community, so many young people in the new generation attach great importance to learning English; Although English is not the official language of Macao, many tourist facilities will choose Chinese and English as the main languages. There are also examples of Macao government officials using English, especially in the field of transportation.

if the word "BUS STOP" is painted on the asphalt floor beside the bus stop. The traffic sign "STOP first" is also a red octagonal sign with a big "Stop" in the middle.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Macau