Forgetting My First Language
It doesn't help that Beijing is actively discouraging the use of Cantonese and all other non-Mandarin dialects of Chinese.<p>Schools in mainland China are allowed to only teach in Mandarin, not the local dialects and almost all TV media is Mandarin.  Even in HK, most local schools don't teach Cantonese formally anymore and it's hard to find Cantonese specific written materials like textbooks etc especially for kids.<p>To the author's point,  in US cities with large Chinese populations like SF or NYC, there are many bilingual English-Mandarin or Mandarin immersion schools to pass on the language to kids, but few or none Cantonese ones.<p>Without that supporting academic ecosystem, it's just a oral language spoken by less and less each generation.