Mandarin Mandarin is currently the subject and medium of instruction for teaching Standard Chinese (Mandarin) class subjects in Chinese Filipino schools in the Philippines. However, since the language is rarely used outside of the classroom besides jobs and interactions related to Mainland China and Taiwan, most Chinese Filipinos would be hard-pressed to converse in Mandarin. As a result of longstanding influence from the ROC Ministry of Education of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since the early 1900s up to 2000, the Mandarin variant (known in many schools in Hokkien ) taught and spoken in many older Chinese Filipino schools in the Philippines closely mirrors that of Taiwanese Mandarin, using Traditional Chinese characters and the Zhuyin phonetic system (known in many schools in Hokkien ) being taught, though in recent decades Simplified Chinese characters and the Pinyin phonetic system were also introduced from China and Singapore. Some Chinese Filipino schools now also teach Mandarin in Simplified characters with the Pinyin system, modeled after those in China and Singapore. Some schools teach both or either of the systems. Cantonese and Taishanese Currently, there are still a few minority Cantonese Chinese Filipino families that still privately speak Cantonese or Taishanese at home or in their circles, but many who still interact with the overall Chinese Filipino community have also learned to speak Philippine Hokkien for business purposes due to Hokkien's status as a community lingua franca within the Chinese Filipino community. Due to the relatively small population of Chinese Filipinos who are or claim to be of Cantonese ancestry, most Filipinos of Cantonese ancestry, such as Spanish-colonial-era Chinese mestizos (Mestizos de Sangley) that originally trace back to Macau or Canton (Guangzhou), especially the younger generations thereof, do not speak Cantonese or Taishanese anymore and can only speak the local languages, such as Filipino (Tagalog), English and other Philippine languages such as Ilocano, Cebuano, etc. Some families of Cantonese ancestry within the Chinese Filipino community also speak Philippine Hokkien with their family, especially those that intermarried with Chinese Filipinos of Hokkien ancestry. There may also be some Chinese Filipino families of Hokkien ancestry that speak Cantonese due to a family history of having lived in Hong Kong, such as around the districts of North Point (), Kowloon Bay or Causeway Bay, during the Cold War period, when many families fled the communist advance to British Hong Kong and