I've met Pearl at a drop-in group. The Agency is looking for an experienced Cantonese interpreter, so I've gave Pearl the number just in case she may know somebody fit for this job. Then we spoke "about life".
Pearl has a "very English" last name - her husband's. She was born in Canada, her family came to Vancouver from Hunan province in the end of forties - in fifties. Her grandparents came first, having no money at all - everything was spent on a plane ticket. They even were not aware that they had to take a bus from an airport to the city... That time, there was a quota for bringing in one male and one female child, so Pearl's mother who already had had 4 children, stayed in Hong Kong for 5 to 6 years waiting for a permission to immigrate to Canada. I don't know how many siblings altogether has Pearl, but having at least 5 children made her mother work day and night, so Pearl was risen by her maternal grandmother. She spoke "veh-ery o-oold, almost ancient Tanze dialect", and her language was "very coarse, rustic, with lots of swearings like, 'hit you to death'" This is Pearl's mother tangue. She doesn't want her daughter (3 years) to speak the same language, but she states that her Cantonese (her mother's amd her community language) is not excellent, so she's quite reluctant about the second language she should teach her daughter.