You’re speaking to them as much as you can, you try to read to them those Chinese books with whatever limited amount you remember from Chinese school, and you spend hours digging out Cantonese animation for them to watch- all in the hope they’ll pick up a word or two. 

You’re desperate for them to communicate with you in Cantonese, but it seems no matter how hard you try, they’re speaking back to you in English. 🤦🏻‍♀️

If you are a British-Cantonese mother like me, this story might sound familiar to you- and trust me, you’re not alone. 

Back in 2020, I conducted a research project to investigate the challenges British Cantonese families face when learning and passing on their native language in an English-speaking country, read more about it in my blog!