u/Dazzling_Pilot_3100

Hello. I live in a Cantonese-only speaking household (recent thing), however I don't speak Cantonese (only English). I am not interested in learning to read and write but I want to learn to speak Cantonese so I can participate in family-wide conversation. I have absorbed some very basic words and phrases through osmosis but have never had any structured learning.

- Are there classes which teach only spoken Cantonese (ignoring written)? I live in Tai Wai.

- What methods would you recommend to begin structured learning?

Hello. I am new to HK and am not yet familiar with the HK banking and investing landscape. My mother-in-law (HK citizen) is financially illiterate and I have been asked to provide some advice as to what to do with approximately HKD 4 million property sales proceeds.

I, of course, will do detailed research myself and will not place full reliance upon Reddit, but I know that this community is filled with educated individuals with more HK knowledge than myself.

I have been asked to provide options for her, including (1) instant access, (2) locking the cash up for a period of time, and (3) investing. Likely a mix of the above.

(1) Instant access: Looks to be around 2% interest rate and would look to split cash in 800k chunks to make use of the DPS protection.

(2) FTD look to provide around 2.7% and would accept the entire 4m. Silver bonds look interesting and provide a higher interest rate but investments are time and value limited, so do not look to provide much value.

(3) Investing a large proportion of funds into a UCITS ETF e.g., VWRA via IBKR looks sensible if my MILs time horizon and risk profile aligns.

All suggestions welcome to guide my own research.

Our family has recently moved to HK and therefore missed many of the application deadlines for the upcoming August 2026 school year. My son currently attends a local school (K1) close to our home but we want to move him to another school for K2 onwards. He speaks Cantonese & English.

KINDERGARTEN requirements:

+ Canto & English lessons at minimum (ideally also mandarin)

+ Fairly relaxed curiculum (I don't want 15 pieces of homework a night - I'd rather spend the time with him going for a swim or bike ride).

+ Provides flexibility for moving into a primary school which also meets these 2 requirements.

We have been accepted into Sophie Kindergarden near Olympic. The facilites look good, the teacher we met was nice, and it seems to meet our requirements.

I am really just interested in whether other parents/kids enjoyed attending Sophie, or otherwise, or if you ruled it out for a specific reason? Any and all comments welcome.

Recently relocated from UK to Hong Kong and about to rent out my previous UK primary residence (unfurnished 3 bed terrace in the South East, recently renovated). I have appointed an agency who will provide a fully managed service and have found tenants on my behalf.

I now need to take out landlords insurance and i'd value more experienced landlords views on what is and isn't required/sensible.

Definitely needed:

- Buildings insurance

- Liability insurance

Are these add-ons must-haves in the renters rights act era?

- Rent guarantee insurance

- Legal expenses cover

Don't think I'll take (but please shout if you think otherwise):

- Contents insurance

- Accidental damage cover

- Home emergency / Boiler cover

- Intentional damage by tenants

- Between tenancy vacancy cover

I looked through historic posts on this sub and my plan was to go directly to the below insurers for quotes. Have I missed anyone obvious/good? Would you recommend going direct or through a broker?

- DirectLine

- Alan Boswell

- Insure Homes Direct

- UK Insurance Net

Thanks a bunch!