Despite their varying levels of English (George, who had been educated at a British school in Hong Kong, spoke nearly perfect—if slightly accented—English, while no one was sure how much Michael actually understood), over the years, it had become the language they predominantly slipped into when they got together, peppered with phrases in various Sinitic languages. Although they all understood some Mandarin, Tina and George were most comfortable with Cantonese, Mary and Michael preferred Taiwanese, and Jianfeng’s Beijing accent was so thick, Ted complained it was like listening to someone with
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