Portuguese use Cantonese only ‘for taxis and at the market’

The Portuguese Consulate in Macau stands at the former St Rafael Hospital

Five centuries after the Portuguese first settled in Macau, Portuguese nationals living in the MSAR still have not mastered the Cantonese language. Temporary residency, difficulties in learning the language, and its inferior status compared to Mandarin prevent the Portuguese from speaking fluent Cantonese.
Gilberto Lopes, editor-in-chief at Radio Macau’s Portuguese channel, is a representative case: Based in Macau for 25 years now, he does not speak Cantonese and nor do his daughters. “I’ve made some attempts [to learn the language] but that was it. I realize that it was a mistake not having persisted,” he said.
“When I arrived in Macau, I was not expecting that I would stay for so long,” he recalled, adding that many Portuguese nationals thought that they would leave the territory in 1999, upon its handover to China. “Very few of those who arrived in that time learned Cantonese,” he explained.
Gilberto Lope’s daughters studied Mandarin at the Portuguese School of Macau (EPM), but “they did not evolve significantly.”
EPM’s teaching quality spoke loudest when Mr Lopes was thinking of a school for his daughters. Besides, “It did not make sense to send them to a Chinese school if neither of their parents is Chinese.”
Maria Antónia Espadinha, vice-rector of the University of Saint Joseph, said she regrets not having sent her children to a Luso-Chinese school. “I felt quite frustrated because I always thought my children would go to a Luso-Chinese school. Everyone discouraged me, but even today I regret it. I think it would broaden their horizons,” she acknowledged.
Having settled in Macau 21 years ago, Espadinha also attempted to learn Chinese but recognizes that it did not go too far. “The first thing I did when I got here was to register for Cantonese classes. I completed two semesters but later I never managed to find a suitable timetable,” she recalled, adding that today she is only able to use Cantonese when speaking to a taxi driver or at the market.
“We are able to live in Macau [without knowing the language]. But it would improve our living if we did speak Cantonese – something the Chinese community highly appreciates,” she commented.
Nevertheless, the scenario seems to be changing, since younger generations “have a more open spirit.”
Designer Filipa Simões, for instance, has been living in Macau for 11 years now, and chose to enroll her three-year-old child in a Chinese kindergarten – a rare choice among the Portuguese community here.
“We truly wanted Matilde to learn Cantonese so she could fully enjoy life in Macau. We wanted her to be a fully accomplished citizen,” she added.
Still in her first kindergarten year, Matilde is able to speak Cantonese more fluently than her parents. “She does not speak Cantonese with us often, but when she does, we do not always understand her,” she said.
So far, Matilde’s parents – both from Portugal – are pleased with her progress. The child already knows the English alphabet and some Chinese characters.
“As long as she’s happy and learning at the same time, for us it’s a win-win situation. She guides us. She’s a very social child, and has many friends. When she is with her best friend, she only speaks Chinese,” Filipa Simões said.
Cabell Chan, a Cantonese teacher in Macau, acknowledges that there’s a growing interest among Portuguese nationals in learning the local language.
“In these past years, I was quite surprised to see Portuguese people showing up at my classes. They say they want to be able to communicate with Chinese [locals], and want to learn more about the community, which was quite surprising for me because I had this idea that the Portuguese did not feel the need to learn Chinese,” she recalled.
She recognizes that it is significantly harder to learn Cantonese than Mandarin, and that there are more Mandarin courses available. “Some classes are even free of charge,” she added.
Nevertheless, it often happens that she has students who have already learned Mandarin but later realized that people do not speak the language often, and who have now decided to learn Cantonese instead.
Ms Chan stressed that it is not impossible to master the Cantonese language, but that it requires a great deal of dedication and practice outside the classroom. “Students can be fluent speakers if they’re in an environment where they’re exposed to the language, where they have to speak to other people. If they don’t practice, they forget it,” she warned.  MDT/Lusa