My love for Cantonese
May 10, 2025 | Rachel Yu
Teaching Cantonese made me fall in love with it.
Similar to the hometown effect (read more here), I think the first language effect affects all of us. Have you ever had someone who’s learning your native language ask you questions about it, and you have no idea how to answer them?
In my case, when my students ask me “What tone number is this word?” I’d have to look it up. It’s so wild to think that, Cantonese learners scratch their heads out trying to figure out the tone, yet us native speakers never really have to give it any thoughts.
The best example that had me thinking ‘wow, what a language’ is when students ask me about the proverbs like 呀, 㗎, 姐, 呀嘛 any many more. For those unfamiliar with Cantonese, these particles serve as indicators of the question type, tone, or statement being expressed. For us native speakers, it is something so innate that I find it very hard to explain to my students.
I saw the same effect on my Spanish native speaker friends. When I ask what the conjugation is of a particular word, more often than not they have no idea what exactly I am asking.
This has made me more aware of ther traits of Cantonese in my daily life, and my observations are simply magnificent. For example, I realized how expressive this language is. The abundance of proverbs that have no equivalents in many other languages demonstrates this perfectly.
Though teaching Cantonese comes with its own unique set of challenges. Most my students can’t read or write traditional Chinese characters, so the materials have to be prepared in Jyutping. Though as a native speaker, I have never had the need to learn it. This has lead to funny moments when my students and I are both looking at one word in Jyutping, they were able to say it faster and more accurately that I was.
Teaching complete beginners can be exhausting, and I'm still trying to get the hang of it. It's so easy to fall down rabbit holes of explanation: the difference between 係 and 喺, why you don't answer '你食咗飯未呀' with '係' even though 係 means "yes," and how '好' (meaning "very," among other things) must always be attached to adjectives in a sentence. You can't just say '你靚', it has to be '你好靚'. These concepts often drive my students crazy, and honestly? I don't blame them for it. With each lesson I teach, my admiration for these dedicated learners grows exponentially.
Another funny observation is when I teach the pronunciations of words like 我，你，內，外 (ngo5, nei5, noi6, ngoi6). Many students tell me they hear their Cantonese friends say "o5, lei5, oi6, oi6" instead, and they point out that I do the same thing! When they ask why, I feel a bit embarrassed explaining that we simply drop the "ng" sound because it requires more effort to pronounce. After getting this question several times, I became more conscious of my pronunciation and started making an extra effort to pronounce words more precisely to set a better example for my students.
Even though I am technically teaching a language, I find myself learning more and more about it as well. It's a beautiful process, and I am deeply grateful to my students giving me the opportunities to makes these discoveries.