The official language of the PRC is "Putonghua", a literal translation of which is "common speech". This is known in English as Mandarin Chinese. However, to think that all Chinese people speak it somewhat misrepresents the true picture. According to Chinese government figures, only 53% of the population speak putonghua. Also, Ethnologue lists more than 200 languages in use in China and there are countless local dialects. This can be a problem, not only for the poor foreigners struggling to communicate, but also for the Chinese. It not unusual to see two Chinese struggling to understand each other.

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