Anita Yuen (袁詠儀) attended a restaurant opening in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday, where she showed off her talent in iced pineapple juice. The restaurant was renovated in a way that reminded customers of the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, which closed down in early 1997. Anita said the restaurant brought back many childhood memories, and that some her favorite things to do was to feet bananas to the zoo elephants. Expressing her love for animals and nature, Anita hope hopes to instill the same passion in her 10-year-old son Morton Cheung (張慕童). Whenever the family travels out of the country, the zoo would always be the first thing Anita would take her son to visit. Despite her fondness for the amusement park, Anita never visited the park with her then boyfriend and now husband, Julian Chilam Cheung (張智霖). She said, “We started off as an underground relationship, so we usually went on movie dates. That way no one would be able to see us. Of course we don’t need to do that anymore.” Anita Wants Son to Speak More Cantonese In a social media live video, Anita looked visibly upset after Chilam urged their son to speak in English. Anita explained, “Because my son attends an international school, Cantonese isn’t really his mother tongue anymore. Now, I would always reply to him in Cantonese, even if he spoke English to me. I don’t want him to forget the language. His Cantonese really did improve a lot, but then my husband told him to speak English, so how can I not hit him after that?” Nonetheless, Anita does not regret enrolling Morton into an international school, expressing that her son is at a very “happy and positive” place. Asking if her son sees her as a ‘tiger mom’, Anita said, “No, but whenever I give him my approval, he tends to hesitate. That’s because, in his eyes, I always say no to him. I need to reflect on that. I know I have a temper, and my mouth works faster than my brain. I really need to learn to control that for my son.” Creds: Oncc
Yeah Morton should definitely keep his mother tongue canto! Even right now my sons first language is English only cause for some reason his mom spoke to him that way first but her canto is way better then mine! So I'm always having to remind her to speak canto to him...
I can understand her point of view. I would want my kids to know Cantonese as well first. They can learn English in school. I want them to be able to know about their own culture.
Totally agree, my future kids will definitely be learning to speak canto and will also teach them to read and write it.
Forgot to mention this in my first post, but once they go to school that's english based it'll be easy for them to catch on to speaking/reading it since that's the way they will communicate to their friends with it...So it's best that they speak the mother language at home so they don't forget it!
I agree, for me, as much as I want them to know their own culture and know cantonese, I would rather focus on them knowing English as they get older. As they get older they'll be in schools where their peers will be speaking English and not Cantonese. In my opinion, just their ability to be able to communicate is all that is enough for me. I'm already gen 2 in the US, so I already accepted by gen 3 or later, much of the culture that my parents bought over will probably be nonexistent by the time gen 3, gen 4 rolls around. Like the ability to speak Toi San, I honestly think 15-20 years from now, not many people will know toi san as the people around my age has already stopped speaking it
I added this to my second previous post "So it's best that they speak the mother language at home so they don't forget it!" I figure at home they should be continued education of their cultural and if the kids don't want it then that's their own decision.
I agree, at least that is what my parents did with me, but I also agree on the part is, it's mostly decision, I don't want to "force" them into speaking or learning it, I rather not have the opposite effect where they hate their culture. Though for me, I came into loving Chinese history growing up, so that helped a lot as to why my Chinese is better than most around Boston. Not better than the ones who came straight from Hong Kong or China but on average I can communicate well with limited read/write, which in my opinion is more than good enough.
Yeah I wish I could read and write, I was in Chinese school when I was younger but I found out why I stopped going is because I wanted to get out Too bad my dad wasn't strict regarding that and made me not stay. Not going to make that mistake with my son.
heh my parents did the same and put me through 2 years of Chinese school, that actually backfired, because the staff bought their teaching methods here and whenever I did something wrong they made me "copy something 100 times". I usually walk out so not many teachers liked me lol. I think I learned most of my Chinese through karaoke with my friends. I'm more American than I am Chinese lol, it's just happens that A. I liked Chinese history and B. 15% of my friends are Chinese Chinese
Karaoke defo helps with reading cos of the lyrics Helps to remember the words And yup TVB was the way to go to learn haha plus the Chinese subtitles helped to refresh as well But to be honest, the Chinese language is So big it's impossible to learn every single word Out there lol Probably pick up a new word that you never knew you knew haha
