Do not learn Cantonese as if it is a Chinese dialect cause it is a spoken language that sometimes use terminologies that are based on Chinese characters. Not all Cantonese words are Chinese words. Chinese is a dead language just like Latin. Chinese characters are similar to Latin roots. Modern Cantonese and modern Mandarin oftentimes use different Chinese characters to form different terminology for the same meanings. For example, astronaut is 太空人 taai3 hung1 yan6 in Cantonese with 太空 meaning "space" and 人 meaning "human", but 航天員 (pronounced as hong6 tin1 yuen6 in Cantonese) in Mainland Mandarin with 航 meaning navigate, 天 meaning sky, and 員 meaning "a person at work".

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