Speaking tongues

As you may or may not know, I am working at the British Council as their Assistant Director of Science and Climate Change programs. Although it is the British Council, I am still working in Hong Kong with Chinese colleagues who speak Cantonese. Sure, everyone speaks English but when they see my Chinese face, they naturally think that I am as fluent in their native tongue as they are.

In the beginning, I always prefaced my introductions to Chinese colleagues with “I’m so sorry but my Chinese is mah-mah (not so good)” but recently I’ve said to hell with it, I am going to embrace the language and try my best to use my Cantonese. Overall, it’s been a good strategy, not only because it forces me to practise my original mother tongue but it brings me into circles that I wouldn’t have normally been genuinely welcomed if I did not. For example, you don’t see the gwei-lo colleagues (Caucasians) being invited to all of the cool little, hole-in-the-wall but really delicious lunch places that they go to. Places where the servers don’t speak English, let alone have English menus. I never know what I’m going to get as I usually just point to my colleague and say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

And conversations in Cantonese are just so much more lively. I can’t really explain it if you don’t speak Cantonese but I’m sure that this isn’t a phenomenon with just Cantonese. I suspect Spanish conversations are more exciting than English ones as well. There are just some Cantonese expressions that have no equivalent in English and sometimes the way that the language is spoken – it’s just so welcoming and playful. Like you’re in a secret club or something. The language allows little room for people to be guarded, unlike English. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Cantonese is more a spoken language than a written one (for those of you who are facebook friends with Jonathan, you can read his recent missive on the Cantonese language). And also it probably has to do with how each sentence ends with “laaaa….” or “maaaa…..”

Anyways, I really am impressed with the way that my Chinese colleagues are so fluent in both English and Cantonese and even, Putongua (or Mandarin). It’s amazing! I actually started Putongua classes this week at the British Council (they offer Chinese instruction programs for their staff) and that hour I spent learning how to count was like making my mind do the stairmaster at the highest level for like 3 hours. I will let you know in due time how I fared with this bit of Putongua when I come back from Beijing.