“Save Cantonese” effort underway at Stanford University
It’s a little off-topic, but interesting that Stanford has dropped Cantonese, spoken by 70 million people in China. It’s also closer to classical Chinese, T’ang dynasty poems that don’t rhyme in Mandarin do rhyme in Cantonese, for example.
Los Angeles Times
April 17, 2022
BY ANH DO STAFF WRITER
APRIL 17, 2022 5:30 AM PT
Laura Ng had a dual motive for taking Cantonese classes at Stanford.
As a PhD student in anthropology, she was researching the history of the Inland Empire Chinatowns.
She also wanted to communicate better with her parents, immigrants from China who worked as a seamstress and a cook.
In late 2020, she was stunned to hear that Stanford, citing COVID-related budget problems, was laying off its longtime Cantonese teacher, Sik Lee Dennig.
As efforts began to save Cantonese at Stanford, the language remained under threat worldwide.
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 
It is a pity to see this. Cantonese is still widely spoken and appreciated. Many popular songs, and TV shows we know of use Cantonese. A lot of Chinese ancient poems and texts sound better spoken in Cantonese. But the good news is that there are ways to learn Cantonese after one has a good command of Mandarin Chinese. One can listen to radio programs, listen to Cantonese songs, and get some phrase books to learn this language on one’s own.