"Ma Ma Hu Hu" (just so so) is a word Carlos Roldao Lopes, director of the Post Office of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, often uses to describe his current command of Putonghua, or mandarin.
Lopes, a native of Portuguese, has been working in Macao for more than a decade. "I had to study Guangdong dialect when I came here first, but now I should learn more Putonghua," he said.
Just prior to the handover of Macao to the motherland, a good number of government officials and celebrities flocked to schools in China's interior to take Putonghua classes.
Stronger ties with the inland entice the trend to continue. Many schools in Macao have added mandarin lessons. A state-level mandarin test center has even been set up at the University of Macao to assess the students' ability.
The authorities of the Macao Mandarin Association estimate that as a matter of fact, 70 to 80 percent of all Macao residents can give a correct reply to the inland or Taiwan strangers who are lost in the streets, despite some of them constantly incurring jokes due to wrong grammar or pronunciation.
A Mr. Leung working as entrance guard at the Zhu Kuan Building said that he can now speak better Putonghua as more and more dwellers are from the inland. "You teach me Putonghua, and I teach you Guangdong dialect," he joked in a conversation.
To speak Putonghua is also for needs of hosting tourists from China's interior. The number of tourists from the inland surged about 30 percent in 2001, making it the second-largest tourist source for Macao only after Hong Kong.
"To spread the use of Putonghua will be a key factor to expand tourism," said Helena Maria Senna de Fernandes, deputy director of the SAR government's Tourist Office, citing that even more visitors will come from the inland in the wake of further opening of the tourism market.
(People’s Daily January 19, 2002)
