<p>IMO, Americans think all Chinese people speak Chinese. Whatever the heck that is, and that is an error. From what I have gathered, Mandarin is the language that is usually taught in the U.S. I do not know how different Cantonese is although I have heard it is quite different. </p>
<p>If I were a young person of Chinese ancestry, I would use the clearer terms of Cantonese and Mandarin rather than a generic Chinese. If you were from Kenya, you wouldn’t say you speak African, you would say you speak Swahili, right? Just clarify what you write.</p>