Learning Cantonese
 

Hi all. I've been trying to think of ways to learn Cantonese for my girlfriend and I. It's more for my girlfriend who knows zero but is interested to learn. I can speak but cannot write which would make me a decent coach to start off with. She's in school and working so classroom learning wouldn't really work. I was thinking more along teaching aids like books, tapes or apps to go over every night and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations.

I looked at a few apps like Duolingo and Rosetta but they only offer Mandarin. I was going to look at some bookstores in Richmond but I have a feeling they would have more learn English books.

The main reason we want to learn Cantonese over Mandarin is because my side of the family speaks it and we plan to travel to the Hong Kong area sometime next year.

Thanks.

watch a shit ton of HK films
she'll eventually start picking some up

not srs lol..

but honestly if she knows close to nothing you gotta start at the roots.... learning pronouns, sentence construction etc
try browsing around a bookstore for stuff like this

http://cantonesepod.com/pods/2012/03...arn-cantonese/

I tried to learn with pimsleur Cantonese audio, 4 years ago. Its too hard for me to learn from a tape. All I retained was "ngo mm sick teng gwong dong wa"

Gf still wants me to learn as her family does not speak English. So it is on my to do list...

Being an Asian with only English as a language sucks. Everyone expects you to know some sort of language other than English.

Why not teach her to learn mando? It's a lot easier for those without a cantonese background to learn mando compared to canto.

Not sure why you were failed. It's true. Mandarin has 4 different tones and cantonese has like 17 or some shit...

Edit: okay it's more like 6 or 7.

"The main reason we want to learn Cantonese over Mandarin is because my side of the family speaks it and we plan to travel to the Hong Kong area sometime next year."

It doesn't matter if Mandarin is easier, that's not the point.

Hate it when idiots try to bully people into learning Mandarin instead. If you don't want to go to mainland China or Taiwan, then there is no reason to learn it. And the idea that mandarin is automatically easier to learn is bullshit. The language that is easier to learn is the one you use daily. And if OP and his family are speaking cantonese all the time, and they want to go to hong kong, it makes no sense whatsoever to try to learn mandarin on her own, and then try to pick up cantonese using that....

Besides, if you ever do want to, my understanding is that going from Cantonese to Mandarin is a lot easier than the other way around.

As for learning, the best way is to speak it as much as possible. This is something I have failed at since I don't talk much in the first place, English or otherwise. If you can speak and she can't, you should do what my wife and I DON'T do - talk to her in canto as much as you can. Also if she fucks up and sounds ridiculous, don't try to embarrass her or laugh at her, that is really annoying and discouraging. Keep it to yourself, and just correct her.

When I get back I am determined to start learning more. I'll probably get a lesson book or tapes or something, and have my wife help me with the pronunciation. Once I get enough grammar to converse, I will take it much more seriously. Putting off learning cantonese is something I am actually quite ashamed of.

Not pushing OP or his gf to learn mandarin, but just wanted to note that the cantonese dialect involves alot of slang/informal phrases that might make it challenging for some to pick up on right off the bat without laying a solid foundation. I'm not saying mandarin doesn't have slang, but teaching cantonese WITHOUT slang is that much harder because cantonese is based off of slang.

An example to illustrate my point:

In english, the expression "how are you" is a common one and is often how you'll hear people start a conversation.

It is formal and at the same time, is used frequently.

In cantonese, the expression "lay ho ma, (aka ni hao ma in mandarin)" is a formal way of saying "how are you" in english. Yet how often is it that you'll hear people say that? Once in a while, but not often.

to my understanding, reading/writing is pretty similar between the two, with subtleties that reflect on the way it is spoken in the respective dialects

Like others have mentioned, being in an environment where others speak the language is one of the best ways to learn. Since she can't allocate time to be in a classroom environment where she can learn from a teacher in person, it will be hard. There's only so much you can learn and absorb from reading books and listening to tapes.

Be like skinny and actually reside in the city for a few months and you'll be amazed at how much you can soak up from just experiencing the culture itself. Remember, humans learn best from approaching things from exposure to multiple mediums and channels, and while reading and listening can be great, you're missing out on the main purpose of language - APPLICATION

Interest is a big one as well. Without it, the most you'll pick up are a few popular catch phrases

This stresses the points I was making. If op's gf is going to be immersed in cantonese, then it doesn't matter how colloquial the language is, or how many tones you can break it down into technically. She can pick up the grammar structure from lessons, but the most important parts - vocab, colloquialisms, slang, and pronunciation, just by being immersed in the language every day.

A book might teach her 'lei ho ma' but since she'll never ever hear it, she'll quickly learn to use the proper greeting (usually "hello" in english most of the time, or 'jo sun' in the morning)

also interested
i grew up in a predominately Canto speaking community but never picked it up
now it would be beneficial to pick up the basics to communicate with my clients (although they can all understand either Mandarin or English)

any tapes/books to recommend for someone who already knows Mandarin? I can read basic traditional characters. Is Rosetta stone any good for Canto?

^Rosetta Stone is only for Mandarin. I would have pira... er... purchased it legally with real money by now otherwise.

Pimsleur audio is all I could easily find a few years ago. Have not looked to see if anything new popped up.


Oh and btw to anyone who read my last post and have no idea what I said. "ngo mm sick teng gwong dong wa" means "I don't understand Cantonese."
I didn't really get to use it much in China, because my gf didn't want people to know that I was a foreigner so that we wouldn't get scammed. So I was pretty much just a mute.

I'm like you, I can speak and listen to Cantonese with no issues but can't read or write. However, if the conversations start getting too advanced like talking about financial, government, medical terms etc I'm pretty clueless. Any other regular conversation I can hold my own even with Hongers with relative ease.

Sure I spoke it at home growing up but I can tell you the majority of my learning just came from watching TV. Karaoke does wonders too especially if you're learning to read and write. My gf and sister who're both CBC learned how to speak Mandarin, read and write Chinese simply by Karaoke alone. They did not go to any Chinese school growing up.

Good luck!

I've been trying to polish my Canto for a while now too!
If you find any good Audio books/lessons please post and share. I've shit luck with trying to find a decent one.

man Cantonese is so hard to learn to speak. To read and write is a totally different ball game. I can speak fluently but learning to read was from KTV and comics. I can't write chinese to save my life tho, it just doesn't connect but I suspect that I might be semi retarded. I'm about 80% confident with my mandarin now since I work in HK/China but I have to say, KTV helps a lot :ifyouknow:

hang out with hongers. it's the only way.

all those books and lessons won't do jack shit. you'll never retain it.

you have to surround yourself with the culture in your personal life.

hangout with hongers.

get a honger gf ;) hahaha...

I'm guessing u and dongguan are best pals
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You guessing right would make you a best pal too

I hang out with many different people buut they all speak english hahahahaha fml

Just listen to everyone here. speak it on the daily. I remember going to Chinese school.. only thing it taught me was to cheat.

Im the same, i can speak it fluently, but i cant read or write.

Most of the teachers didn't care either so it just made cheating even easier

im going to dongguan this weekend, u wanna hangout :ifyouknow:

i speak cantonese & mandarin super well due to the fact that when i was growing up my dads from hong kong & his family is all from hong kong, while my moms from taiwan & her family is from taiwan

u have to use it alot, if u listen to honger music then it does help a bit & watch movies

another thing u can do is go to chinese shops to shop & go to more hong kong style restaurants, u can practices basic terms as u will need this travel

everything is base on practices

note: i cant read or write, i just like to read chinese comic just to practice my reading & right now its slowly getting better as i work in china

Any tips for a white boy to learn canto? I need it only for family dinners(maybe once a month) and eventually when my son learns it. My wife can sort of speak it but she often uses english words while speaking it so i don't think she is the ideal teacher.

go to t&t more often, u can practice at the meat or fish department as u need to tell them what u want

i remember there was a white guy that i met at the bank & he lives in richmond, he learned canto 20years ago cuz a lot of ppl from hong kong were coming over alot

he was taking classes at the community centres, he said he teaches music so it was easier for him to learn in general

not sure if any of this helps

as everyone has mentioned, you need to immerse yourself with it in terms of who you socialize with. also the media you are immersed in (tv, movies, music)

Search - CantoDict

this site i like. has trad and simplified. has slang and lots of common phrases. and has spoken chinese in written form...

the tricky thing is with learning cantonese is that (and I think is part of why Rosetta Stone does not offer it, apart from a larger customer base):
classical Chinese writing (like what you would see in a newspaper and books) is not how people would speak word for word when it is person to person communication
ie 我是香港人 (classical)
vs
我係香港人 (spoken)



Think of it as your daily use of English. And compare it to that of your usage of English if you were to submit a paper for a university course. Only, the difference in structure and vocab are even more different