It was after the age of fifty in Vancouver that I decided to really work on Cantonese, since so many people in Vancouver speak that language. I had always heard some Cantonese when I was with my wife's Chinese relatives. However, my ability did not go far beyond ordering food in a restaurant, and even there I made mistakes.
I am never shy about using what little language knowledge I have. Once in a restaurant when I wanted to order a dozen spring rolls or chun gyun, I ordered a dozen chun doi or "spring bags." In Chinese the word chun means spring, and has the connotation of sex. (I find that a very poetic association.) Unfortunately for me, chun doi or spring bags refers to the male sex organ and not to an item of food. After the initial shock at what I had said subsided, there was laughter all around.
My wife grew up speaking Cantonese. However, she and I always spoke English at home and we were not about to change the habits of thirty years. I was able to read the Chinese newspaper in Mandarin but could not pronounce the characters in Cantonese. I enlisted the help of my friend, the Cantonese speaking Vancouver journalist Gabriel Yiu, but really did not make progress.
I suppose I understood about ten percent of what was said in conversation or on the radio. I believe a person needs to understand well over ninety percent of most situations to be considered fluent. I had a long way to go. The problem was that I had a bad attitude. Subconsciously I felt that the pronunciation, with nine tones, was simply too difficult. I also felt that Mandarin, the national language, was good enough and that I really did not need Cantonese. I did not have commitment.
I started searching Chinese bookstores in Vancouver for Cantonese learning material. I found a book that amounted to a breakthrough. This book demystified the issue of the nine tones of Cantonese. This system emphatically stated that six tones were enough. This seemed very sensible to me since I felt I could not even get six tones right and would still be able to communicate adequately. In addition, the author showed that these same tones existed in English, not to distinguish the meaning of words, but to provide emphasis in sentences. I suddenly realized that the phenomenon of all these tones was already familiar to me from English. I had been a prisoner of my fear of the tones. Now the obstacle of the tones was removed and the doors opened.
Next I needed material to listen to. I asked people to tape simple content for me that I listened to over and over. Then I bought a Minidisc player, which is a truly revolutionary tool for the language learner. It can record from radio or television as well as download from a computer. It can record your own voice and store a great deal of material. Yet it is light to carry and the sound quality is outstanding.
I soon started recording Cantonese radio programs, including talk show programs. As my Cantonese improved, I started to phone in to the Cantonese radio talk shows to offer my opinions on different subjects. I recorded this all and compared myself to the native speaker announcers. I believe the Minidisc recorder enabled me to achieve a degree of concentration in my learning that contributed to my breakthrough in acquiring Cantonese. Unfortunately I have not been able to find electronic texts in Cantonese which correspond to the audio material that is available. I am sure this will come and that it will facilitate the learning of Cantonese.
By concentrating on content that I enjoyed listening to, and with my knowledge of Mandarin to help me, my comprehension gradually improved. This reinforced all my previous experiences with language learning. It pointed out once again the crucial role of the learner in achieving success, and the importance of finding interesting material. Also, my success at Cantonese confirmed to me that age is no barrier to effective language learning, if the learner is prepared to make the commitment.
While I am not totally fluent, I am able to carry on a conversation, even to the point of phoning in to radio talk shows. My six month period of greatest effort is now behind me, and I will continue to improve just by listening to the radio and meeting with people. I recently spent a few days in Shen Zhen and Guang Zhou (Canton) after an absence of twenty years. Of course I was amazed at the changes in those places. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to speak Cantonese with people that I met, which greatly added to the enjoyment of my visit.
The hard work that I have put into the learning of languages and creating a personalized learning environment has been made dramatically easier with the Internet and modern software systems. What I did with great effort can now be done more effectively and more enjoyably. I am looking forward to learning more languages myself, and continuing to upgrade skills in the languages that I already speak.
