Cecilie Gamst Berg (a.k.a. Ah Sin) was born in the swinging sixties, grew up in the sad seventies, left Norway in the anal eighties and settled down in Hong Kong in the nightmarish nineties.
Realizing from an early age that she couldn’t be in or near snow, Cecilie ran away from Norway as soon and often as she had the chance, but circumstances and various countries’ harsh immigration laws always forced her to return to the land of the thermal underwear.
It wasn’t until the end of the eighties that she got the chance to settle in a warm climate for good. She currently lives in a somnambulistic village on an island in the South China Sea with her dog Piles, who speaks three languages and who, if he were a man who shaved religiously, would be one of the most handsome guys in China.
Cecilie is a keen cook of Sichuan food and a feared Chinese-poker player, as well as being actively engaged in the uphill battle of making Cantonese a world language…
Now she’s been hired by RTHK to make a weekly radio program about Cantonese! That acerbic tongue (Cantonese, not Cecilie’s mild and dulcet tones) will be a world language yet!
This is one of the most interesting “About Me’s” that I’ve read on any blog!
Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com
Just wanted to say thanks for all the great moments of joy and learning with your weekly radio program, in which you co-host with Sarah, I’m from Portugal and i listen to it religiously. My cantonese has been improving greatly just through listening to that show. We don’t have any Cantonese schools or courses here in Portugal, so i’m learning Cantonese mostly by myself through books, websites and your show, i even have been receiving compliments for my Cantonese speaking ability from my Gf and my friends in Hk, so all i can say is thank you very much for bringing up such a useful show for us Gwai lo
And very interesting Blog site, too bad i didnt find it earlier!
Best Regards
Hugo
Wah! Great!! Thank you. It’s good to hear that it’s working. I’ve never listened to any of the programs. So far.
I would concur. I’m a American over in Boston, and finding ways to learn Cantonese is like finding ways to make Bush’s approval rating go up. Well. Okay that’s a little harsh. It’s not -impossible- to find Cantonese information, unlike upping his approval.
I’ve wandered. I’ve been learning it because I am planning on Migrating to Malaysia and Canton is one of the main languages there. I’ve always loved languages (took some Japanese) and think being multilingual is one of the most powerful things in the world. However, doing it is a pain in my ass. There are few books and fewer podcasts or audio helpers. it really does feel like it is an uphill battle. But, I came across the Naked Cantonese Podcast on iTunes (First one I heard was “In the Toilet” – great start. Heh.) and found it very informative. You both should host a talk show together. I think it would be interesting, to say the least.
Anyways, I do appreciate the Podcast, and hope to hear many more.
Oh don’t worry, there will be many more.
As soon as ah-Sah has time to download more poddie castee, you’ll be listening to the cows come home! And longer!
Ah-Sin, please ask ah-Sah to get her finger out and upload all of the new Nakd Cantonese podcasts. I note in your reply above you have asked ah-Sah to download rather upload the podcasts.
Maybe thats why the ‘podcastee’ is not there as he keeps “dowloading” them and not “uploading” them.