It’s sort of the same situation in the US, maybe subtler. I remember in Utah where I used to live we use the word “sluff” for skipping school. None of the other US states had that word and thus it’s only understood in Utah and you’ll receive a blank stare if you use it in Ohio. Same thing with “勺子”.

I would suggest that you know all of the substitution words, but it can be very exhausting to do as well.

You are right. Spoon is 匙羹 in Cantonese.

Most Chinese (i.e., the country folk) don’t use spoons very much. They drink soup and zhou from a bowl, and use chopsticks for any solid ingredients. Thus, while they certainly know their local word for spoon, they don’t use it very often, and even if they recognize the standard Mandarin term when they hear it on TV, they never use it at all.

Then they move to the city and get a job on the wait staff in a restaurant. A week or so later a foreigner walks in. They’re a bit startled because they’ve never seen one before, so when he asks for a “liddle”, it takes them a while to realize that he’s saying “ladle” with a foreign accent; and a bit longer to figure out that what he really wants is a spoon. What on earth would he want a spoon for?

This accounts for the fact that the waiter people often don’t understand 勺子 even when a native speaker asks for one, so it’s a reasonable theory, but I don’t know if it has anything to do with reality.

Incidently, Albert, I don’t think you’ve been using the wrong word. I’ve heard lots of Chinese use 勺子 for spoon, despite what the dictionaries say.

She just told me that 勺子 might make people feel a little strange. She thinks it is a word that has fallen out of common use, like 足（脚 - 画蛇添足）. Some people laugh when I call my feet 足, others give me blank stares. My wife also said that maybe people living way out in the mountains would use 勺子, but in cities they use 调羹.

From now on I’ll be using 勺子.

I was taught that 勺儿 meant “spoon” and 勺子 meant “ladle.” The 现代汉语词典 seems to agree, listing 勺子as “较大的勺儿”, but I don’t recall anyone making that distinction outside the classroom. (The locals where I am do use 勺子 for “ladle”, though.)

According to the dictionary and my classroom teachers, 勺 is second tone, but I’ve heard many people pronounce it in the third tone. Or at least I think I have – it’s at least equally possible that my old ears deceived me.

The dictionary also lists 匙子 (chi2-zi) for “spoon”, but again, I’ve never heard it used.

I usually use the old stand-by — I point to the thing on the next table and say I want one.

I am fluent in Japanese, but my Chinese is very poor, so YMMV.