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“

I like learning languages, so I was like—Why not just try

learning Cantonese?

”

pressive and passionate, so I quite like “I went to a book
that,” she says. shop and tried to look for
Njoku is especially fond of the pro- books. Everything was
nunciation of Cantonese. (for learning) Mandarin
“It sounds really funny. It is like and Chinese. There was
singing songs…Even now I have been nothing for Cantonese,”
learning for so many years, whenever she sighs.
I watch anything in Cantonese, I re- But Njoku manages to
ally like the way it sounds,” she adds. overcome many obstacles
and picks up Canton-
A Bumpy Cantonese Learning ese by watching different
Journey Cantonese videos and
Njoku finds speaking Cantonese dramas.
difficult at the beginning. “I like watching You-
“I couldn’t pronounce the tones. Tube videos because
While I was listening, I couldn’t hear they are really easy and
the difference between tones. Every- short. But recently I just
thing just sounded the same. It was finished a drama, which
really hard to pronounce and to un- was Ossan’s Love. I think
derstand people,” she says. it is really good so I want
Lacking resources to learn Can- to watch more (Canton-
tonese in London is another difficulty ese) dramas,” the polyglot
she encountered. says.

Grace Njoku takes note of the tones when she learns
Cantonese vocabulary. (Photo courtesy of Grace Njoku)

“

It (Cantonese) is always very expressive and passionate,

so I quite like that.

”