Hi, these are actually two different languages,Cantonese has its own grammar,pronunciation which is completely different from mandarin. I am Cantonese, I teach both Cantonese and mandarin to foreigner. Most of my students who learn mandarin with me found that difficult to understand Cantonese. However if they can speak mandarin, it would help them to understand some words in Cantonese. But to foreigner learning Cantonese would be more difficult than learning mandarin due to the tone.