In order to adapt to the living in Hong Kong, the Rana family has tried to learn Cantonese in different ways for communication with local people.

Language Acquisition in HK

​Mrs. Rana

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• Has learned Cantonese through daily interaction with local people since she first came to Hong Kong ago.

Mr. Rana

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• Can only speak a bit Cantonese
• Learns Cantonese through TV programmes (~50%) and daily communication (~50%)
• Thinks Cantonese is much harder than Japanese as Cantonese is much more different from Napali than Japanese

e.g. word order - Cantonese: SVO but Nepali/Japanese: SOV

 

 

• Also considers the tones hard to grasp. Local people speaking Cantonese with tones is always like shouting angrily. He once felt hawkers shouting at rudely when he asked the price.

Iruna

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• Learns Cantonese through classes by Christian Action
• Reads books teaching Cantonese in Nepali
• Thinks certain vowels very difficult to produce and to memorize

1. e.g. /y/ as in 豬 (pig) /oe/ as in 香 (fragrant)