It’s Unfortunately Working
Have just come back from yet another extremely fulfilling and surreal trip to the hinterland – this time Shaoguan in the north-west of Guangdong province to which only the coincidence of October 1st, China’s national →
Ha? Double Ha?
I have to say this sign gave me a start when I first read it. What, I could no longer add money to my Octopus card at Mui Wo ferry pier? That would be quite →
Cantonese Crash Curse. I Mean Course.
Wei wei, Friday night it’s full forge ahead again with Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau’s Cantonese FUNdaMENTAList Crash Course!!!! You’ll learn everything you need to know about drinking in bars, paying for drinks and →
Deeply Embarrassed
Yep, here it is. The entire protest against Mandarin taking over and squeezing out the regional languages. Well, actually, there were more people. Two more. One was me and the other one an organiser. So, →
Rally! Rally! Rally!
My friend told me she had seen a large banner in Guangzhou saying “Be civilised, speak the civilised language.” (What? You don’t know what the civilised language is? It’s not Cantonese, that’s for sure.) I’m →
So Many Ways To Learn Canto!
As imperial-Mando encroaches on our linguistic liberties, it goes without saying that more and more people who don’t like to be dictated to, want to learn Cantonese. But many are concerned about time, commitment, pain, →
Cantonese Forever Part II: Big Brother Knows Best
Some people say – well, so what if Mandarin became the official language (or as the South China Morning Post in its endless contortions to please everybody twists it into, the “official dialect”) of Hong →
Language In Symbols
Tibetan Prayer Flags Chinese Prayer Flags
Learn By Doing
Here is Peter (ah-Dak) who’s been taking Canto lessons with me for some months now. When we went on our first trip to Guangdong province together at the end of last year, he immediately went →
Chanting For Canto
If I told you I’d been to a demonstration in the mainland with thousands of people but all the police did was put up some barriers and stand around holding hands, would you believe me? →