One of my great regrets in life is not learning Cantonese as a child.

I blame my oldest brother for this.

You see, my parents sent him to Chinese school so he would learn the native tongue of my grandparents. They thought he was doing great — until my uncle let it slip that he saw my oldest brother playing basketball after school every day, which is when he should have been in Chinese school.

So much for that.

My parents, no doubt defeated by that experience, never even tried to send my other brother or me to Chinese school.

In high school, I had another chance to study Chinese. Mine was one of the few high schools at the time that offered courses in Mandarin. Not exactly my family’s mother tongue, but at least in the ballpark.

But what did I do instead? I took French, because I thought it sounded so pretty.

Yup, that one I have only myself to blame.

If only there was an easy way to learn now. Well, there just might be. CourseHorse is a start-up educational program that offers access to classes on everything from — yes — Mandarin to architecture to computer programming to pilates barre to sushi making.

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