Companion
Two Languages: Cantonese
You translate for your pòh-pòh at the grocery store.
You translate for your pòh-pòh at the grocery store. You have been doing this everywhere.
For the young Cantonese-speaking person who translates for their family in daily life — holding two languages, two versions of themselves, and a responsibility they never asked for and cannot put down.
The Name It First Experience
At the grocery store, the checkout person speaks too fast. Your pòh-pòh does not understand. You step in. You translate. You also edit — softening the impatience, adding the politeness, protecting the dignity of the person who raised you. You are not bilingual. You are a bridge. This is where you write what it means to live at that crossing every day. The output is not a language assessment. It is your Cantonese Languages Page.
You can opt into 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins from your account. We recommend you do — the point is to see what changed.
Sample questions
- What does Cantonese mean to you — the connection to Hong Kong or Guangdong, the sounds of your family, and what the language carries that Mandarin or English doesn't?
- What does Cantonese carry that other languages cannot — the cultural knowledge, the humor, the specific way your family sounds?
- What do you want the next generation to understand about Cantonese and why you've worked to keep it alive?
- What does your family do to maintain Cantonese as a living language — and what has been hardest?
Research basis
Grounded in bilingual identity research / language brokering studies (Morales and Hanson, 2005) / heritage language maintenance (Fishman) / and Cantonese-English bilingual identity in Chinese diaspora children.
Choose your format.
Every format asks the same questions and produces the same document.
Print Paperbackpersonalize
A real book and a pen. Write in the margins. The most permanent version of you on a page.
$12.99
eBook + journal
The full guide on any screen, with a companion journal to write your answers by hand.
Not available
Audiobook
We read every question and every scenario aloud. For the commute, the walk, the dishes.
Not available
Hardcoverpersonalize
The keepsake edition — sewn, ribboned, made to sit on a shelf and be returned to.
Not available
Digital Fill + membership+membership
Answer on screen. Your responses save as you go and assemble into your finished document.
$4.99
Hands-Free Interactive + membership+membership
Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
Not available
Everything packages
The Paperback Everything Package
[personalize]
Not available
The Hardcover Everything Package
[personalize]
Not available
The Premium Hardcover Everything Package
[personalize]
Not available
Already own this title? Add any other format from your account.
Choose your pace.
The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
Essential path
Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
Full depth
Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
Already own this title? Add any other format from your account.
Buy it for yourself.
Choose your format above.