Relearning a language is hard, especially one that uses logographic characters as its written form. Because Chinese has no phonetic alphabet, the only way to be somewhat literate is to memorize thousands of unique characters. [Edit: I have since been notified that there is a phonetic alphabet for Chinese called Bopomofo, but I was not taught this in Cantonese learning school.]

Realistically, as an adult with adult responsibilities, memorizing characters takes a back-seat priority. I’ve focused on only recognizing key characters, such as those used in menus, so I can effectively order food in its native language. After all, Chinese restaurants exist practically everywhere, so this is a skill I can take all over the world.

Speaking of food, I am relearning the fact that no, Chinese food is not disgusting. Sure, I’m not a big fan of dim sum simply because of taste, but there are lots and lots of tasty Chinese dishes I genuinely enjoy. I don’t know if this is me reclaiming my culture or simply being a less picky adult eater, or maybe it’s simply recognizing that Chinese cuisine is vast and diverse. I live on my own now, but I do relish visiting my parents for a home-cooked Chinese meal. Steamed fish, tomato egg, and even egg tarts (a Hong Kong specialty!) are among my favorites.

As for culture and values, I may not always agree with elements of traditional Chinese values (Confucianism has some misogynistic values), I recognize that these values evolved very differently in a different part of the world, and it’s hard to judge them from a strictly Western lens. Rather than blindly criticize these ideas, I’ve learned to actually explore how these values came to be.

I’ve also come to appreciate that knowing just a little bit of my mother tongue is a privilege. Some Indigenous and Black American folks, for example, will never know their linguistic origins because of historical, violent suppression. And this makes me immensely sad. I have begun to accept that coming from an immigrant culture of color is a gift, not a setback. Knowing another language really is a superpower.

Being multilingual means being privy to different worlds. Language grants you the keys to entire cultures and the perspectives and stories within them

Being multilingual means being privy to different worlds. What I didn’t appreciate as a younger person is that language grants you the keys to entire cultures and the perspectives and stories within them. For example, multilingualism opens unique perspectives about world events. Hong Kong is currently going through a revolutionary period, and I wish I could read and participate in Chinese-language forums so I can understand the events from the Hong Konger point of view, rather than get my information from Western sources. Knowing the language would help me better understand what people in Hong Kong are really going through in their own words.

Multilingualism also connects young people to elders. My grandparents have all passed, but I wish I could have had more in-depth conversations with them. They were all directly impacted by World War II, and I wonder if they would have shared more of their stories with me if we’d been closer, because the Eastern side of World War II is often ignored in Western discourse.

Also, Cantonese is just a sassy language with fun, quirky idioms and wordplay. And I wish I could laugh along.

So if you have a non-English mother tongue that is starting to get rusty, I beg of you, please do your best to keep it. Keep that gift, that superpower, that access to a rich other world.

And a final note for fellow linguistic nerds! I use the term “Chinese” to loosely mean the people, cultural heritage, and history of the place known today as China, as well its diaspora populations, and as a blanket term for all the languages spoken there.

However, China is an incredibly diverse place with many languages. Today, Mandarin is considered the official language, but Cantonese remains dominant in the south, in Hong Kong and Macau, and in diaspora communities. Whether Cantonese is a dialect or a language in its own right is a controversial matter. If you want to learn more, this video does a good job explaining the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese.