It's not essential in cosmopolitan Hong Kong to speak Cantonese. Many expats can't, and live here for years without learning even the bare essentials. Some can, having taken the time out of conviction that their lives here will be vastly enriched. Ma Ruizhi reports.

"I felt like I wanted to integrate better in Hong Kong. I waned to get the most out of my time here," said Andrew Wright, a Cantonese learner.

By 10 am on Sunday morning Andrew Wright has been awake for several hours, having made his way to Wan Chai to take his seat as a student in a slightly stuffy, windowless classroom.

An American school teacher, Wright has given up his weekend lie-in, favoring instead a three-hour Cantonese class. And he is by no means alone.

Around him, another two dozen students are squeezing into their places after a short class break.

The unglamorous character of the Wan Chai classroom has done little to deter attendance and after starting lessons at 9 am, the group of adults is beginning to shake off their Sunday morning fog.

Seated inside the classroom are students from India, the UK, South East Asia and the US. Even outside the classroom a teacher is conducting a simultaneous lesson on the hallway floor.

Such is their motivation to learn, that students seem unphased by the lack of space and even seating.

Cantonese is not a language which receives a great deal of exposure outside of Hong Kong. Many foreigners arriving in the city never pick up even the bare necessities.

When MTR announcements are made in three languages, road signs are bilingual and menus are offered in English the merits of learning the local language are often easy to overlook.

Add to this the money and time pressures Hong Kong generates for its working population, sometimes even motivated learners struggle to find the resources with which to grasp a second language.

Andrew represents a minority. He moved to Hong Kong from his home in the US in 2008 and has given up his Sunday mornings - and Saturday nights out - to study Cantonese.

"I felt like I wanted to integrate better in Hong Kong. I wanted to get the most out of my time here," he said.

"Most of my friends are from England and my colleagues speak English, so it's easy to get by without Cantonese, but I want to be able to make conversation in the local language. I want to reach a basic level of fluency."

Kate Yeung, a freelance Cantonese teacher at the Essential Chinese Language Centre, in Central, explained that her own students are driven by a broad range of reasons to learn Cantonese.

"Some want to be able to chat in Cantonese and others want to obtain complete fluency, with the goal of reading and writing in mind," she said.

"A number of my students have married a local person, and so they are of course very determined to perfect their language skills, but not all students come to me to reach this level of ability."

Despite good linguistic intentions among some foreigners there still remain some solid reasons why many do not pick up the language.

"I came here five years ago but have never really learned more than a few words of Cantonese," said Tom, who moved from the UK and now lives in Sha Tin.

"Most expats I know seem to give up because it's really difficult to be understood given our poor grasp of the tones. And the fact that you can get by perfectly well with English ruins your motivation somewhat."

Kate said that some of those who take the initiative and begin lessons still find themselves struggling to use Cantonese, as it is easy to become intimidated by a quick-tongued local citizen.

"Students of mine who have been trying their Cantonese in public normally describe three responses from Hong Kong citizens: a slow and steady, easily understandable response in Cantonese, which really boosts confidence; a response in English, or; a quickly-spoken Cantonese response which the student couldn't understand."

It's often the personality of the student then which determines whether he remains intimidated or goes back to the classroom armed with questions before attempting more conversations in public again, Kate said.

But if a student is serious about the language, a few difficult conversations shouldn't put him off, Andrew said. "All conversations are hard when one person doesn't speak a language very well, but if someone wants to speak a second language such as Cantonese then they need to be prepared to make mistakes, and not excuses."

In addition to hurdles faced in Hong Kong such as the proliferation of English, the Cantonese language also has competition from Mandarin.

The popularity of studying Mandarin is showing no sign of waning anywhere in the world and, when living so close to the mainland already, many new arrivals to Hong Kong are tempted to forego the local language in favor of learning one spoken by over a billion people.

"Cantonese is such a variable language compared with Mandarin," Kate said. "A thought or feeling can be expressed in ten different ways in Cantonese, whereas Mandarin speakers stick much more closely to the written language, making learning Mandarin more straightforward."

Mark Ma, an employee at Starbucks in Hong Kong, said that of all the foreigners he encounters during his work he cannot recall one who spoke to him in Cantonese, but added that a foreigner speaking Mandarin is no longer a rarity.

"Learning Cantonese is very important if you are living here though," he added. "It can make a big difference to a person's quality of life."

And so the classes in Wan Chai were created. The lessons are subsidized by the government in order - originally - to provide a service to overseas domestic helpers who need to integrate better into Hong Kong life.

They have proven popular among all kinds of new additions to Hong Kong's population, as the multicultural classroom on Sundays shows.

Learning the basics, Kate said, is essential whatever country someone moves to, but more than that should be up to the new arrival. "In the 1980s the Hong Kong government decided that local people should smile more to attract more tourists to the city. The idea fell flat on its face, and I think that suggesting newcomers learn Cantonese risks the same fate."

Andrew was also wary of suggesting that formal inducements be used, describing the chance to learn any language a personal choice, "although the benefits of doing so are great", he said.

"To be honest I've found learning Cantonese easier than I expected it to be," he added, reflecting on his first five weeks of study. "Tones have been less of a barrier than they're often made out to be and my colleagues have been very supportive.

"You can also impress a few people if you can make the odd smart comment."