Reading some interviews with Ni Kuang made me wonder where he learned his Cantonese. As we all know, Mr. Ni was born and raised in Shanghai. His native language is Shanghai dialect or Wu dialect. He learned Cantonese when he immigrated to Hong Kong in his twenties, so he speaks in a "sweet but not light", with a very strong accent, listening to a word or two. I know it's not a local. At that time, most of the new immigrants who came to Hong Kong were self-taught in Cantonese.
There were not as many Cantonese classes as there are now, and there were also systematic teaching of off-campus courses in universities. Except for foreign missionaries from wealthy or church-sponsored classes who attend classes, most people industry email list learn Cantonese from everyday life. Especially poor people, who urgently need to work to earn money and have no time to go to class, learn Cantonese from colleagues, guests and people around them. But most new immigrants can learn to speak and listen to Cantonese in a short time, and can cope with work and communicate with guests.
Wu and Cantonese are completely different languages, perhaps like the gap between German and Danish, they are both Germanic languages, but they belong to different branches. Wu dialect has many unique vocabulary, the grammar is somewhat similar to Cantonese, but not the same. Some Wu language adverbs are followed by verbs, saying "go first" instead of "go first", which is the same as Cantonese; but attributives are followed by nouns, such as "hot", "shoe slippers", which is the opposite of Cantonese.