Letters to The EditorOpinions & Editorials

Letter to the Editor: Cantonese Classes

Dear Editor,

When the world shut down during the COVID pandemic, a new world opened for me at CCSF. CCSF’s online Cantonese classes allowed me to reconnect with my heritage and connect with other students who shared my struggles: we became a community, and CCSF became our home. 

 

Prof. Yu’s Zoom room became our sanctuary. This changed once CCSF ended its online Cantonese classes. We lost our home away from home—and not just us, but also working parents who can’t commute to attend CCSF classes in person and new Cantonese-speaking immigrants who used these classes as a valuable English learning resource. 

 

CCSF cannot afford to lose us: online and part-time students are an effective solution to CCSF’s ongoing financial woes, many of whom are willing to pay to receive the educational experience they cherished over the pandemic. 

 

CCSF must act swiftly to save itself and save its students. One step toward that goal is reopening CCSF’s Cantonese classes to online students. CCSF cannot afford to turn its back on those who see it as a home away from home—or, to paraphrase a poem from my Mandarin class, those who “live long and share the moon’s beauty from afar.”

 

— Chester Leung

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Guardsman