Learning Cantonese

I've been putting off learning Cantonese for many years. Despite the fact that I live in Hong Kong, where Cantonese is the language everyone speaks, I've never really decided to learn the language seriously.

One of the reasons is that I am unsure about the future of the language in terms of commercial value. I still am. Cantonese is the language used in Hong Kong, but ever since the reunification with China, everyone including their pet fish has been learning Mandarin, which is the official language of China. If everyone's going Mandarin, why should I 'waste' time with Cantonese?

Will there be anyone left to talk to the time I learn it?

Another reason is that I never really really needed to learn the language. Yes, it's a little inconvenient haggling with wet market vendors about the price of something when you cannot even tell the vendor what it is you want to buy. But you get by. You learn a few vital phrases: like shouting yao lok! when you want to get off a minibus. And people you deal with learn a few vital phrases in English as well.

But now both my children are in school. My wife and I deliberately decided to put them in Chinese classes rather than in English in order to 'force' them to learn Chinese. It's a little bit like throwing children into water so they learn how to swim.

Only later did I realise that if you throw a baby in water to make it learn how to swim, you yourself better know how to swim just in case the baby has problems swimming.

The baby has some trouble swimming and it's time for the father to learn how to swim.

Next: In trade-driven Hong Kong, how do you ask: How much is this?