1953 – Paul D. Alderton’s copy of 'First Year Cantonese'

Paul D. Alderton’s copy, purchased new in 1953, of Thomas A. O’Melia’s First Year Cantonese, Maryknoll House, Stanley, Hong Kong 1941.

In his Acknowledgements, Fr O’Melia thanks the Officers of H.M. Government in Hong Kong for the honor they have conferred on the work by adopting it as the official text for local beginners of Cantonese.

Essarem notes that, by the late 1960’s, this charming and thoroughly instructive work had been wholly replaced by Sidney Lau’s more secular, and extremely comprehensive, series of courses as the designated medium for teaching the Cantonese language to civil servants in Hong Kong.