Language – Life – Work

Two years ago, I began learning Cantonese and today I am going to have a look at how and what I learned during those two years.

After living in Hong Kong for quite a while and spending a lot of time on learning Mandarin and some written Chinese, I finally got tired of being oblivious to what was going on around me. On more than one occasion, I encountered situations that I totally misinterpreted, because I was not able to understand what people said. For example, one day I was walking in a park with my Chinese girlfriend and in there was a group of elderly people in front of us, shouting at each other at the top of their voices. I assumed they were having a serious argument, but when I asked, my girlfriend told me that they were simply talking about the price of groceries. Additionally, I often was not able to participate in conversations when being with a larger group of Chinese friends. Sure, one or two people would always talk to me in English or Mandarin, but overall I would not know what the group was talking and joking about. And finally, despite the impression one might when they briefly visiting Hong Kong or living in Hong Kong’s expat areas, many Hong Kongers, especially the older generations, are  very uncomfortable with speaking English or even not able to speak it at all.

During the first three months, I mainly learned by myself and practiced with my girlfriend. I used a book and MP3s to practice pronunciation and understand how the language works. But more importantly, I started speaking Cantonese whenever there was an opportunity. In the beginning I was only able to stutter a few words, but whenever I did not know how to say something in Cantonese, I wrote down the word or phrase I did not know, looked them up later, and then committed them to memory. Using this approach, I managed to learn enough during the first three months to have simple conversations, talk about myself and my feelings, and conduct transactions (shopping, eating out, etc) in Cantonese.

In the middle of the third month, I found out about Cantonese classes in my university and sent an email to the relevant office introducing myself and asking for more information. I got a reply that one of the teachers wanted to meet me to, and the next day, I went to his office. When I arrived, he looked at me and started speaking in Cantonese. He asked me about my background, how long I had learned Cantonese, and showed me some course materials. Somehow I managed to answer most of his questions and after “interviewing” me for about 15 minutes in Cantonese, he switched to English and told me that their beginner’s Cantonese class would be too easy and boring for me. Instead he signed me up for a class for intermediate learners that mainly caters to overseas Chinese who already learned some variant of Cantonese from their parents and want to know more Hong Kong-style Cantonese.

I attended the class the teacher recommended and I only have one word for it: awesome. The class focused on conversation and presentation and the teacher, who was a born entertainer, spent most of the time on Hong Kong slang and trendy expressions.  Most of my classmates were overseas Chinese and already more or less fluent in Cantonese, and English was strictly forbidden in class. Because of that I experienced perfect immersion in Cantonese. Outside class, I still continued learning by myself using the approach described above. By the end of the class, which lasted approximately 4 months, I was really confident about speaking, even though I still made a lot of mistakes. After that, I continued learning by myself. Mainly by speaking Cantonese as much as possible and my going through books and CDs to increase my vocabulary.

In the beginning of the second year, I stopped formally learning and started using language exchange as my main method of improving Cantonese. I don’t have any regular schedule, but I try to meet one of my exchange partners at least twice a month. In addition, I also learn new words simply by living in Hong Kong.

Overall I feel that I have learned most of my Cantonese during the first 8 months. Of course I learned a lot of new words and phrases in the following 16 months, but I am still more or less at the same level: I am conversational and fluent in a few topics important to me. But I am nowhere near complete fluency. Other language learners have reported similar experiences: Once one gets comfortable with a language at a conversational level, it requires a lot and effort and time to push oneself to get to an advanced or even native-like level. In order to keep myself focused, I will finish this post with a list of goals I have not yet achieved use it as a guideline for the following year(s).

Goals not yet achieved:

• I don’t understand Cantonese news. This mainly because the language (register) used in news is more like written Chinese: the grammar and expressions are very different from colloquial Cantonese. I am not sure if I will ever attempt learning the news language, because it would require extensive study of formal expressions and structures, which are rather useless in my daily life.
• I can only partially understand Cantonese movies and TV shows. I hope to get better at this during the coming year. I think movies won’t be much of a problem, but most Hong Kong TV shows are completely retarded and a pain to watch.
• I am not able to talk about history, art, politics, and science in Cantonese.
• I can’t understand people who speak variants of Cantonese other than Hong Kong Cantonese.

Whenever I go out to buy stuff or run errands in Hong Kong, the people I come across usually talk to me in English first and only switch to Cantonese after they realize I can speak it. That is normal, because I am and look like a “Westerner” (blue eyes…) and people assume I am either a tourist or an expat.

But today is different. Today is strange….

In the morning I first went to a hardware shop inside a wet market in Wong Tai Sin to buy a hex key. The owner of the shop never saw me before and couldn’t possibly know that I speak Cantonese. But as soon as I entered and before I said a word, he greeted me in Cantonese and asked how he could help. The rest of the conversation and transaction was entirely in Cantonese without a single English word. (I had looked up how to say “hex key” in Cantonese before I went out).

After I left the shop I thought that maybe because the shop is located in a grass roots area and hidden inside a wet market, the owner must have figured that I must be something like a local and probably speak Cantonese. Another possibility is that is simply could not speak any English at all. But everyone in Hong Kong seems to know words like “hello” and “thank you”.

Anyway, I left, took the MTR to Kowloon Tong, and went to Taste, a “Westernized” supermarket in Kowloon Tong. The staff there always speak English to me and as far as I remember I never tried to use Cantonese there before. But not today. When I queued up at the checkout, the cashier said told me in Cantonese to use another line where less people were waiting. Once it was my turn to pay, the other cashier, who could not have heard that I understand Cantonese, also used Cantonese to ask me the usual questions (if I have a membership card, need a bag, …).

When I left Taste, I was really confused. Was that just a strange coincidence? Whatever it was, I hope it will happen more often.