Ridiculous System

This morning I had a Canto-lesson on my roof (Lantau people: Come to Pui O to learn Cantonese this summer!) and mentioned the word 雀仔(jeuk tsai) -bird. What? my student cried, aghast. Her daughter went to, oh, I don’t know, pre-university or something (she’s 4) and is learning that ‘bird’ should be “siu liu” (小鳥）。

Sure, that also means bird – in imperialist speech-language Mandarin. Basically schoolchildren learn the local language through another language with local pronunciation. Like learning English through the medium of French but pronouncing each word in the English manner.

This week was the second time I received a panic call from a friend who is studying so-called Cantonese at the Chinese University; he was trying to read something ostensibly Cantonese but which turned out to be pure Mando.

Yes, yes. I know that the written Chinese everywhere is based on Mandarin. But why can’t Chinese University, when they are teaching Cantonese to foreigners, teach actual Cantonese?
How is my friend to know that what he reads as 做好了沒有 (joh hou liu muht yao) should actually be said in Cantonese as 攪掂未 (gau dim mei)? (Meaning: Have [you] done/finished [it] yet?)

If he has a guy fixing his shoes, say, and asks: Joh hou liu muht yao, I think that shoe repair geezer is going to look at my friend and scratch his head.

Ahhrghhh, I get so vexed! Why can’t they let Cantonese be Cantonese, and when teaching it, teach it as Cantonese???

That shi-shi-shi Communist speech-language Mandarin is a big boy and can look after itself. It doesn’t need Hong Kong to prostrate itself before it.