Chinese is not a language

Scrolling through the problems on the site lots of members are commenting that "it's in Chinese"

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia, it is not a language.

The official dialect of China is Mandarin, also call “Putonghua”. More than 70% of the Chinese population speaks Mandarin, but there are also several other major dialects in use in China: Yue (Cantonese), Xiang (Hunanese), Min dialect, Gan dialect, Wu dialect, and Kejia or Hakka dialect

Please could we show some respect and and at least refer to the errors as in Mandarin?

Rainshine

In this case we are referring to the written characters, so Chinese is correct. Mandarin and Cantonese (another major language in China) sound very different but use the same characters. When it is written it is not correct to say Mandarin, as a native Cantonese speaker would use the same characters. When it is a spoken language it is correct to specify Mandarin or Cantonese. Chinese is not a spoken language but it is correct to say it for the written characters.

greenteas

all the signs after uploading a file is in CHINESE

Prettyblue

Sometimes people just aren't aware - I don't believe it's intentionally done. Perhaps just comment educating them next time you see it?

Rainshine

In this case we are referring to the written characters, so Chinese is correct. Mandarin and Cantonese (another major language in China) sound very different but use the same characters. When it is written it is not correct to say Mandarin, as a native Cantonese speaker would use the same characters

When it is a spoken language it is correct to specify Mandarin or Cantonese. Chinese is not a spoken language but it is correct to say it for the written characters.

Filokolobrzeg

Hello, quite interesting subject:) but we are not here from only USA.

I think that in many countries we learn that in China they speak chinese mandarin . If you go and check for eg in France you will see explanation :
Le chinois mandarin est une langue tonale....
If you check explanations in Germany you will find out the same thing chinese- mandarin.

BluBrd

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to explain this.
Though I guess non-asian people like me may resort to saying "chinese" because they're unable to tell one dialect from another. I may be able to discriminate korean from other asian languages because it has a very specifc appearance, and in some instances japanese, but am totally unable to read or understand any of them. More than never I guess it from the context.
Sorry if that is hurtful to you, though I'm unsure if non european people can tell french apart from spanish, italian or whatsoever (I mean, people that don't master those languages obviously).

...so this website is in Mandarin, is that it? (so I get it rght)

Filokolobrzeg

I checked 4 countries in Europe and they teach us that in Chine Chinese speak chinese mandarin....never say only mandarian so....
You can even check yourself what they suggest on line if you know other Languages.

bs.frog

Thank you for the explanation Silverlea, being respectful or one another is always a good rule :)

qle

Grateful for the explanation provided, Silveria!