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A great many Tibetan dialects are still being used in this region, despite wide spread language discrimination from the Han Chinese dominated government. Bi-lingual signage does exist to an extent and some efforts are being officially made to compensate the majority Tibetan population but the region is still far from being truly autonomous. These dialects differ enough from each other and from Lhasa Tibetan as to be mutually unintelligible. There are also some local languages such as Minyak that are considered separate languages and are only distantly, if at all, related to Tibetan. Some ethnic Tibetans speak Mandarin Chinese and/or only the Sichuan dialect of Chinese. Most can switch back and forth to both. Younger people regardless of their ethnicity will speak Mandarin and may also speak English. As a rule cities are dominated by written Chinese and the futher you venture out the more likely you will hear and see Tibetan. Local people are very happy to hear you attempt to learn a few words of their local language.
