Enlight21

Author: Victor Wan | Category: Parenting | Date: 02-25-2020

The first time I met my grandparents in their Cantonese home was in the summer of 2008. Every year since then, as I walked past the front door, my grandmother would lighten up immediately, cheerful to see me grow up and mature year after year. My grandmother has had a major influence on my life by teaching me how to be a social and more polite human being.

My grandmother currently lives in Hong Kong. She is a short yet jolly woman who is skilled in cooking Cantonese delicacies and is always eager to try new local activities. For example, as she dresses up in her typical summer outfit(sunhat, pink polo shirt, Nike walking shoes), she would bring me with her to the mall. There, she and all of her closest friends are eager to meet me, and gossip about me in Cantonese. I couldn't understand anything they were saying since my Cantonese skills is extremely poor. Every year when I met my grandmother and her growing list of friends she had around Hong Kong, I slowly realized that my grandmother is very extroverted. with endless stories to share, she really is able to make new friends. Since I used to be a very antisocial being, often happy and satisfied being by myself, I encouraged myself to take in the experiences my grandmother had with her friends and use her strategies to find some friends of my own, eventually forcing myself to become an extrovert like her.

Since my spoken Cantonese is extremely underwhelming, my grandmother has taught me courteous gestures and polite sayings during certain occasions. For example, there are two ways to say "thank you" in Cantonese: "mm goy" and "do ze". My grandmother told me to use "mm goy" as a polite way of saying thank you after someone offers to help with something, like if someone helped you reach for an item off a tall shelf or if someone offered to correct your food after the restaurant made a mistake in your order. "Do ze" would be used after being given a gift or reward. Around Lunar New Year, when children receive red envelopes from their relatives, they would say "do ze" instead of "mm goy", since the former is more suiting for the occasion. Besides this, I have been taught various other ways to show my courtesy for others, ranging from spoken language to hand gestures. My grandmother's main goal for me was to not only be kind and respectful to others but to also use these polite techniques to build my social character. Without her significant teachings, I would still be a rude and secluded person today.

About: Victor Wan