Books Books Books

Can you learn Cantonese from a book? I would say no, not least because of the crazy spelling that bear little or no resemblance to the sound of the words.

Can you indeed learn any language from a book? Again, I’d say no. I think it slows down rather than speed up the process. The best way to learn anything is to do. So yes, if you want to learn to speak Cantonese, the best way is to speak Cantonese.

Having said that, reading books; good literature, biographies, history books is of utmost importance to keep your brain and sense of adventure and curiosity in shape. It’s like athletes. If they want to succeed, they train not only kicking the ball (or whatever) but the whole body. Some football players, I have it on good authority, even do – dance! I’m 100% sure that if I hadn’t read up to 30 books a month as a child, I would never have thought it was possible to go and live abroad and become the only Norwegian Cantonese teacher in the village.

In Pui O where I live, a teacher has transformed the English department by starting a reading programme where the students can choose what they want to read! That’s right, instead of having Shakespeare and Chaucer stuffed down their throats, killing their love of reading and words forever, they read what they think it’s interesting. If they don’t like a book – they just leave it and pick another one!!!

Sean Earl has the right idea, and the tiny Pui O School with its 50-something pupils is now doing better in the reading and writing of English than its international school counterparts. Wooo hoooo!

Listen to my interview with Sean here on Radio Lantau. (As usual, scroll down until you see the archived post.)

睇書 – Tai syu (read book)
我好鍾意睇書 – O hou jungyi tai syu （I love reading)
貝澳小學 – Bui O Siu Hok (Pui O primary school)