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Dear developers,
Since we players can state our languages at the bio, I suggest to add Teochew (known as 潮州话 or 潮汕话 locally), which is a widely spoken Chinese dialect both in eastern Guangdong Province of China and overseas (especially in South East Asia), to the bio languages option. I noticed that now the available languages are in a "[ISO639-3CODE] Localname" format, so Teochew would be this (although its ISO 639-3 code is not available yet at the moment):
[TEO] 潮汕话
Here are the reasons why I made this suggestion.
  1. The Teochew language is quite different from Mandarin, the official Chinese. Its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar are distinct. For example, "I like to eat pineapple" in Mandarin is "Wo xihuan chi boluo" but in Teochew it is "Wa ngiêng ziah huênglai" or "Wa ngiang ziah huanglai".
  2. We have a Teochew community at VRChat, with 123 members. https://vrc.group/TEO.9587
  3. Language is a very crucial element in VRChat, many people use VRChat to learn languages and make friends. People speaking the same language will be easier to become friends. It would be a very cool thing for a new player surprisingly find that their mother tongue is included at the bio language option.
  4. There are a large amount of Teochew native speakers and heritage speakers. Teochew is spoken as mother tongue in eastern Guangdong Province of China, specifically Chaozhou City, Shantou City, Jieyang City and some part of their neighbor cities. Here is the national population census statistics in 2020.
Chaozhou City: 2,568,387 [Ref 1]
Shantou City: 5,502,031 [Ref 2]
Jieyang City: 5,577,814 [Ref 3]
Sum: 13,648,232 (13.6 million)
References:
[1] http://www.chaozhou.gov.cn/zwgk/tjxx/tjnj/content/post_3718646.html
[2] https://www.shantou.gov.cn/tjj/tjzl/tjgb/content/post_1918293.html
[3] http://www.jieyang.gov.cn/tjj/tjsj/gb/content/post_545257.html
Besides, there are also many Teochew people overseas, especially in South East China. For example:
Singapore: The Teochew community is the second-largest Chinese dialect group in Singapore after the Hokkien. According to the 2010 Singapore census, Teochews make up about 20 percent of the Chinese resident population. (Ref: https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=38dd0fc9-508c-4196-9842-2fb8bce3acfb)
There are approximately 2-5 million OVERSEAS Teochew speakers according to this file at South Western Sydney Local Health District. https://www.swslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/services/Interpreter/PDF/teo-chew.pdf
November 6, 2023