Fuzhou dialect phrasebook
Min Chinese dialect in Fujian
Fuzhou (福州话 Hók-ciŭ-uâ; Fuzhou speech) is a dialect of Chinese native to the Fuzhou region and its surrounding areas, as well as on the Taiwan-controlled island of Matsu. It is part of the Mindong (闽东话 Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄; Eastern Min) branch of the Min family of Chinese languages, which are also spoken throughout the East Fujian region. It is one of the official languages of Taiwan. Mutual intelligibility between Mindong dialects varies: while someone from Fuzhou can understand the Fuqing dialect with some effort, they will not be able to understand the dialect spoken in Fu'an.
It is also spoken by some Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia; where in Indonesia it is known as Hokcia or Hokciu, meanwhile in Singapore and Malaysia it is known as either Fuchou or Foochow (sometimes also Hokchew). In Indonesia the speakers of Fuzhou can be found in Surabaya city and its adjecent regions, meanwhile in Malaysia it can be found in Sibu, Miri, Bintulu, Yong Peng and Sitiawan. In USA, Fuzhou also spoken by a significant minority of New York City's Chinese community.
There are also some speakers of Fuzhounese around the world. Fujian province has always been outward-looking, involved in trade and a source of emigrants.
The Fuzhou dialect is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Cantonese or any other Chinese dialects, not even other Min dialects like Minnan and Puxian and even certain dialects within Eastern Min branch.
Most Fuzhou dialect speakers in China and Taiwan are also able to speak Mandarin, so learning the language is not necessary to communicate, and foreigners living in the area usually opt to learn Mandarin instead which result in the language being in decline. That said, learning to speak Fuzhou dialect will almost certainly impress the locals.
All Chinese languages, in general, use the same set of characters in reading and writing in formal settings which is called Han Zi in Standard Mandarin, Hang Zi in Fuzhounese. This means that a Fuzhou dialect speaker and a Mandarin speaker cannot talk to each other, but either can generally read what the other writes. However, Fuzhou dialect written in a colloquial form has significant lexical differences from standard Mandarin, meaning that a Mandarin speaker will not be able to make everything out. Use the Chinese phrasebook for reading most writing in Fuzhou dialect-speaking areas.