Mandarin Mashup May 14, 2012
- R0051803 Every non-Chinese living in Macau has been in this situation: You meet your neighbor in the lift for the umpteenth time, and you are still not able to make small talk. You want to ask the doorman when the noise from the construction works is going to be over, but you can’t. You want to tell the taxi driver where to go, but you don’t know how to say it in Chinese. For foreigners in Macau - especially Westerners - it is self-evident that they don’t speak the local language. As a result, situations of mutual non-understanding and of “living together but totally separated” become part of most foreigners’ daily lives. Macau Daily Times found four expats who are an exception to the rule.
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Cantonese speaking foreigners are 'rare species': Four expats are exception to ... - Macau Daily Times
For Guillaume Leclerc, the “point of being in a place is to learn about the local culture and people.” That is why the French developer and designer, who has been living in Macau for four years, started to learn Cantonese since the first day he arrived. He started listening to a CD, and then got “very good books” that made it “very easy to match the sounds with the pinyin” (the official system to transcribe Chinese characters).
Since he was living near the Kiang Wu Hospital, “with a lot of locals around,” Guillaume could always practice when “going out for dinner, at bars, taking the bus...”
“Maybe many foreigners come with the family, so it’s harder [for them],” he says. But for Guillaume it was clear that learning Cantonese was “part of the deal.” “I don’t want to come here to hang out with French people and eat French bread.” What else motivates him? “I’ve always been amazed by people speaking different languages.” Problems he encountered in the beginning were “young people who, even if you were speaking Cantonese, would answer in English.” There are also “many words, that if you don’t say them correctly, they mean dirty words. But usually people find it funny.” The reaction Guillaume now receives from locals is usually: “Oh, you speak Chinese!” One of the rewards for his efforts is that he considers most of his friends in Macau Chinese. He didn’t learn reading or writing because: “the effort you have to put in to learn so little is so high,” and he would loose the motivation. “But the speaking was very fast, so it was very motivating.” Meanwhile, he practices Cantonese every day, since after two years in Macau he met the girl who became his wife; and she doesn’t speak English. So, “at home it’s pure Chinese.”
For Robert Biuk-Aghai, the big profit from having learnt Cantonese is to “be able to communicate with all people in practically all situations.” “It has made me more confident to take a fuller part in local society and community life,” says the German computer scientist, having worked as an Assistant Professor in Macau since 1993. “For example, right now I’m taking a coastal skipper course organized by the Government’s Maritime Training School, with lessons conducted exclusively in Cantonese and me being the only foreigner among all-local Chinese classmates.”
I don’t want to come here to hang out with French people and eat French bread - Guillaume LECLERC
He often gets complimented for speaking Cantonese. People say, “Wow, your Cantonese is very good.” It makes people “who otherwise would not think of speaking with a foreigner open up.” It also helps him “buy things at local prices instead of greatly exaggerated foreigner prices, especially in mainland China, say in Zhuhai or Guangzhou.” The computer scientist had learned “a little Mandarin in England and Germany,” and “had a very basic foundation for learning Cantonese.” So almost right after arriving in Macau, he “started picking up some common Cantonese phrases, just by twisting the Mandarin pronunciation a bit to sound like Cantonese.” Initially, he thought he didn’t need to learn Cantonese, “as it’s only of limited usefulness.” But after living in Macau for a while he realized that “although locals are able to communicate in Mandarin, to them it’s still a bit like a foreign language.” So, “in order to better integrate in the local society,” he decided to learn Cantonese. He took a short course “with a local community organization around 1997 for about 4 months.” It was not easy. “Cantonese is one of the most difficult languages in the world,” says Robert.“Even today I still can’t pronounce Cantonese completely like a local. I still have difficulty clearly distinguishing the pronunciation of the words for ‘buy’ 買[maai], and ‘sell’ 賣 [maai].” He thinks the reason why most other foreigners don’t learn the language is that “many feel overwhelmed by this language. It’s so inaccessible. By that I mean you can’t even read it to start with.” He explains that: “to the novice learner a “ma” sounds just like any other “ma”, no matter if it’s a high, medium, low, falling, rising or level tone. It takes a while to pick up these subtle nuances, and then even longer to be able to reproduce them correctly. By that time many foreigners have given up already.” But he also guesses that “a lot of foreigners don’t really care about the local language, culture or people.” Like Guillaume, Robert’s wife is local Chinese. “We speak Cantonese with each other and she’s my personal Cantonese teacher and walking dictionary.”
Cantonese instructor Karen says that “mastering a language is never an easy task, but it should be easier for learners who speak Asian languages like Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese to learn to speak Cantonese than speakers of other languages.” When posed with the option to choose between Cantonese and Mandarin, she thinks that “if one wants to carry out everyday conversations in Macau, for certain Cantonese should be given priority.” Her recommendation to foreigners: “Keep learning it.”
Anther two surprising exceptions to the rule are Dr. Morgan and Dr. Humphries from the Hope Clinic. Both doctors not only speak Cantonese fluently in everyday conversations, but also when exercising their job. “My first year I pretty much started Cantonese full time, and another year and a half part-time,” explains Dr. Humphries, who has been living in Macau for 15 years. “Our mission [the Baptist church] had a language school, three hours a day, five days a week, we were encouraged to study a couple of hours and then get out and practice for a couple of hours.”
“Every one was required to learn the language. You knew that when you signed the contract,” says Dr. Morgan, who has lived in Macau since 1988. In the beginning, he needed a translator and “maybe never completely understood what the patient needs.” Now he benefits from speaking the language, and not only at his job. “We have many local friends.”
Nevertheless, reaching today’s level of fluency was a no walk in the park. “Difficult is too mild a word!” He laughs, “for professional people it’s a very humbling experience to become illiterate again.” Both doctors think the stresses and strains were worth the trouble. “We were fortunate to have been given the time to learn it.”
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