International Tutors' Magazine October 2018 | Page 12

OCTOBER 2018
INTERNATIONAL TUTORS’ MAGAZINE
SURVIVING IN CANTONESE
BY CANDY ZHANG
When I heard that I was admitted to
EdUHK, I was excited but afraid. English-
only classes would be a big challenge for
someone who has been using Mandarin for
her entire 18 years and did not pay enough
attention while learning English. However,
when I got to the university, I found that
the most serious language
problem was actually
understanding Cantonese.
group’s chatroom in WhatsApp. However,
the moment I joined the chatroom, I found
it impossible to get more information
— though the messages were written in
Chinese characters, I couldn’t understand
what they said. Then I realized that it was the
written form of the oral Cantonese used in
their daily conversation, which
was difficult to understand
as a Mandarin speaker.
I turned to my group
parents, and eventually
got the arrangements
about NSFD with their
patient
explanations.
The
language
challenge had
just begun.
To make New Student
Friendship Day more
interactive, new students
were divided into different
groups following their
groups leaders (whom we called “group
parents”) to participate in various games.
I contacted my group parents beforehand
for details and they suggested that I join our
However, the language challenge had just
begun. No matter the type of activity,
student groups were all in Cantonese.
As a Cantonese beginner, I could hardly
Left: Candy's group
bonding during
New Student
Friendship Day.
Opposite page: Left
to right, Candy with
two new friends,
Zi Wei and Polly.
They help her with
her Cantonese; she
helps them with
their Mandarin.
understand a slow
speaker,
not
to
mention faster speech
with slang words. I felt
extremely helpless,
especially
during
moments when the
whole audience was
laughing. I could
only look around
ignorantly, wondering
what had happened.
to do next, some
students came up to
me and asked whether
I would like to join
them for lunch —
in Mandarin. Their
enthusiastic
and
heartfelt invitation
make me feel at
home. I made two
friends, Zi Wei and
Polly. They taught
me and corrected
my Cantonese, and
I gave them advice
on
pronouncing
Mandarin. We started
eating together and
shared
our
lives
around the table.
With their company,
I needn’t be afraid of Cantonese any more.
Luckily, I met Yuri,
one of my group
mates. She began
to not only translate
important or funny
messages to me but
also teach me some
oral Cantonese and
how to chat on the phone. I also began
to enjoy activities more when my group
parents started explaining the rules in
Mandarin after explaining them in Cantonese.
Their enthusiastic
and heartfelt invitation
made me feel at home.
Now my Cantonese is much better. I can
understand some of the words in a sentence
and then guess the meaning of the sentence
as a whole. Though there is still a long way
to go to fit into a Cantonese-speaking
place, I believe I will be able to survive in
Cantonese with friends’ help and my insistent
study. Everything is going to be fine! v
The fear of not understanding Cantonese
rose up again when I walked into our Program
Assembly, where most of my classmates were
Hong Kongers, chatting together in Cantonese.
After the meeting, as I was wondering what
photos by Candy Zhang
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