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Originally Posted by HansTWN
Some examples from every day language are "ringo" for apple, "o to bai" for motorcycle, "o ba san" for an old lady, and "o ji san" for an old man. When they write they use the Kanji, but while speaking they use the Japanese pronunciation. None of these would be understood by a mainland speaker from Southern Fujian (where they use the same basic dialect). And many Taiwanese even use these words when speaking Mandarin.
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I learned expressions such as "o ba san" first in Taiwan, and was surprised to find them again when living in Tokyo. It's a reason why studying history is very helpful. Now we understand many parts of the Japanese language remain even after Taiwan is no longer a colony of Japan.
Even though the Japanese language uses a lot of Chinese characters, we need to be aware that over time their meanings may have changed. For example, 妖精 in Japanese is "fairy" but in Chinese is "evil spirit".
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I can read the HK newspapers without major problems.
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I was not encouraged to read Cantonese newspapers because they were for the "working class" only, or so I was taught.