Compare it to western languages such as English, Dutch, German etc. There are similarities but significant differences as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoken_Chinese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Europe_germanic-languages_2.PNG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_language

Learning Cantonese is actually a nightmare.

Wu language system is not much different from North language system, but Yue language system is。and there is another great different ， Min language system， which used in almost Fujian provence and other area nearby in southeast china。

no 。 Mandarine basic is the North language system。 Shanghaiese is the Wu language system。 Cantonese evolves from the Yue language system。

I think Shanghainese is closer to Mandarin than Cantonese. Cantonese is the hardest to learn. 我觉的广东话很难学. 在建.