My sister is a teacher in Hong Kong. She has now lived there for more than a decade, both my niece and nephew were born and are being raised there. So I guess it is her home.
Soon after Hong Kong was taken over by China, she felt an urge to learn Mandarin. She, like many others, felt that it was the language of the future when the world would make a beeline to China. She was right, the future is now, and China is a economic super power and it would be a great advantage if we knew Mandarin.
Recently as part part of a school sponsored trip she along with the students and other teachers went to a school in Shenzhen, China. Several of the teachers were Chinese from Hong Kong and they spoke Cantonese. Now here is the unusual fact, the two dialects are so different that the Cantonese speaking Chinese do not understand Mandarin!! All the presentations at the school in Shenzhen were in Mandarin but since these Hong Kong Chinese did not understand they kept asking my sister to translate it for them!!
Imagine a Hindi, Tamil, English, and Mandarin speaking Indian woman (my sister) translating Mandarin for Cantonese speaking Chinese. I thought it was apt in a world that is gone flat!!
Monday, June 23, 2008
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