As part of our relocation package, I receive fifty hours of language training in either Cantonese or Mandarin. From those who have been in HK for a few years, I have been told to take advantage of this training, but to do it sooner rather than later. So, I jumped right in and ordered a tutor!
Oh my word! I have six hours of teaching per week, and Tuesday was my first two hour lesson. My head hurt when the tutor left. I would ber repeating her - or at least I thought I was repeating her - and she would tell me, "no," so I would say the same thing again - exactly the same in my opinion - and she would say, "Hiai a," or yes. Honestly, the tonal language is going to be the death of me. She says that when I say the number nine, pronounced "gow," I am actually saying the word, "old;" and when I am saying the number four, pronounced "sie," I am really saying, "dead." The word for nine and the word for dead sound exactly the same except one is said with a higher tone than the other.
Today was my second lesson and it went a little better - maybe because I knew what to expect, or maybe because I am pretty good at asking her questions about something random and getting her focus away from Cantonese for a few minutes. At any rate, I can tell time and tell someone the day of the week and the month of the year, which is really helpful for the Cantonese speaking person who has memory loss.
We are mostly working on conversational Cantonese right now, so I am learning phrases as well as single words. I can't tell you the number of times she has giggled and said that I am saying a "bad word." This makes me a bit nervous to try out my skills on the general HongKonger! Again, where's the guy with memory loss, or at least with a poor hearing aid?
I might get brave and record part of a session and let my sweet friends hear what geek I am!
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