photo credit: Cait Malilay
Launched in September 2022, the series is based on real adventures, both big and small, of her daughter Jojo.
“At the same time, I’m creating the resources for ourselves as well as families who want to be able to pass down that Cantonese language to the next generation and hopefully future generations beyond that,” Shan said.
What inspired her to launch this project is that while she was shopping for children's books, she noticed that a lot of them were more catered toward Mandarin-speaking families.
Mandarin and Cantonese are tone languages.
Jojo's Adventure Books only uses six of the tones.
According to PEW Research Center, about 34% of U.S. Asians speak only English in their homes. 66% speak a language other than English at home. The most common of these is Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese.
“When Jojo was three months old, my husband and I, we had been speaking to her in English that whole time, but we kind of switched gears and decided we wanted to raise her bilingual and even multilingual if we can. We really just wanted her to be able to grow up speaking Cantonese so that she can communicate with older family members,” Shan said.
Born and raised in Brooklyn by immigrant parents from China, Shan and her two brothers grew up speaking Cantonese and Taishanese.
“We also grew up watching TVB shows. TVB is a television broadcasting company in Hong Kong and most of the population there also speak Cantonese,” she said.
When Hong Kong was ruled by the British until 1997, most local schools officially used English for instruction, but also taught in Cantonese.
When Shan was in fourth grade, she wanted to expand her knowledge more on the Cantonese language, so she asked her parents to enroll her in Chinese school.
After taking classes for a few years in New York City's Chinatown, she decided to stop right around middle school.
“In hindsight, I really wish I did finish another year because then I would have graduated if I finished the sixth year of Chinese school. It kind of impacted me because I don’t feel as confident in my literacy in Chinese,” she said. “Whether or not Jojo learns to read or write in Cantonese, my priority really is more for her to understand it and be able to have a conversation in Cantonese. A lot of it really does stem from just wanting her to be able to communicate with family members who aren’t fluent in English.”
In addition to resources like hers, she says that another way that people can stay connected to their language is by switching the audio options on streaming services.
“I am personally really, really thrilled to see that Cantonese is available on services like Disney Plus, so when we are ready to allow screen time, I’m happy Jojo can actually enjoy shows while picking up Cantonese, which is similar to how my brothers and I picked that up,” she said. “I’ll be watching the shows with her, so I can brush up on my Cantonese as well.”
To learn more about Jojo’s Adventure Books and to stay up to date on the next series, Jojo’s Fall Adventures, be sure to follow her Instagram @jojoadventurebooks.
According to PEW Research Center, about 34% of U.S. Asians speak only English in their homes. 66% speak a language other than English at home. The most common of these is Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese.
“When Jojo was three months old, my husband and I, we had been speaking to her in English that whole time, but we kind of switched gears and decided we wanted to raise her bilingual and even multilingual if we can. We really just wanted her to be able to grow up speaking Cantonese so that she can communicate with older family members,” Shan said.
Born and raised in Brooklyn by immigrant parents from China, Shan and her two brothers grew up speaking Cantonese and Taishanese.
“We also grew up watching TVB shows. TVB is a television broadcasting company in Hong Kong and most of the population there also speak Cantonese,” she said.
When Hong Kong was ruled by the British until 1997, most local schools officially used English for instruction, but also taught in Cantonese.
When Shan was in fourth grade, she wanted to expand her knowledge more on the Cantonese language, so she asked her parents to enroll her in Chinese school.
After taking classes for a few years in New York City's Chinatown, she decided to stop right around middle school.
“In hindsight, I really wish I did finish another year because then I would have graduated if I finished the sixth year of Chinese school. It kind of impacted me because I don’t feel as confident in my literacy in Chinese,” she said. “Whether or not Jojo learns to read or write in Cantonese, my priority really is more for her to understand it and be able to have a conversation in Cantonese. A lot of it really does stem from just wanting her to be able to communicate with family members who aren’t fluent in English.”
In addition to resources like hers, she says that another way that people can stay connected to their language is by switching the audio options on streaming services.
“I am personally really, really thrilled to see that Cantonese is available on services like Disney Plus, so when we are ready to allow screen time, I’m happy Jojo can actually enjoy shows while picking up Cantonese, which is similar to how my brothers and I picked that up,” she said. “I’ll be watching the shows with her, so I can brush up on my Cantonese as well.”
To learn more about Jojo’s Adventure Books and to stay up to date on the next series, Jojo’s Fall Adventures, be sure to follow her Instagram @jojoadventurebooks.
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