I have being living in Shenzhen for two years, but I never say a single word of Cantonese. It’s ok to stay in Shenzhen because many people speak mandarin Chinese. Shenzhen is the melting pot In China, so I never worried about my communication skills.

But troubles arose when I went to HK. People lived there speak very authentic Cantonese, I cannot understand then at all.

To my surprise, one of my colleagues can speak perfect Cantonese. She is not a local people at all, but married a local guy. I think it’s much easier for Fujian people to learn Cantonese, since the two dialects have some similar tones. 

My colleague speaks southern Fujian dialect when she calls her Fujian customer, and she changes into different dialects when talks to different people, it’s amazing to me. She sits opposite to me in the office. So whenever she made a telephone call, I stare at her, just want to know how she pronounced.

Till now, I only can say hello in Cantonese. And some of the simple words, such as where, which or morning, I will keep learning and maybe one day, I can speak fluent Cantonese too.