People and Languages
Macau's population consists of mostly Han Chinese (95%) and Portuguese (2%), with a minority of other ethnicities. Although both Chinese (Cantonese) and Portuguese are the official languages of the region, most of the residents speak Cantonese. Currently there is only one school in Macau where Portuguese is the medium of instruction.
The Macanese language, generally known as Patuá, is a distinctive Creole that is still spoken by several dozen Macanese, an ethnic group of mixed Asian and Portuguese ancestry that accounts for a small percentage of Macau's population.
Signs in Macau are displayed in both Traditional Chinese and Portuguese. In contrast to mainland China, Macau, along with Hong Kong and Taiwan, generally does not use Simplified Chinese Characters.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Macau
Famous quotes containing the words people and/or languages:
“It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four, besides being very amusing.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)