Hey everyone, Just joined PA a few days ago and looks like a great forum! New years resolution this year is to get serious about learning Cantonese - my family is from HK but I never learned as well as I should. It's a bit intimidating though - any ideas for good books/resources to start? Or a Canto radio station or something to keep practicing my listening? Thanks for the help!
Firstly where do you live now? Erm best way to learn Cantonese is to speak it first hand with people.. that's how my chinese got very fluent but then i have been forced to learn it as my first language instead of english as a BBC If you have family that are from HK, do you have any cousins around your age that you can talk through Skype or MSN? Or you can search for Chinese local community centres to see if there is any saturday/sunday classes for you to attend to Plus you can learn it by watching the chinese programs that you can d/l from this forum
tell your parents or friends to transfer some of their knowledge to you like they do in kung fu movies.
I had a hard time learning Chinese too but it got easier as time goes by. Music was my own only best source of learning about the language, culture, and trends.
Best way is to listen to Canto Music and watch Canto films/tv. Films are probably good as they often have english subtitles, then you will start to learn how to speak
Actually I've made a lot of progress with online resources, if you're interested. Depending on what your level is when you start, if it's low (like mine!) jumping into films/TV doesn't help much. To put it shortly, I've started learning basic vocabulary based on a list of the most common words, to give me a good reading base (for web + tv subtitles in chinese).
I hate learning cantonese. I can speak and understand it but my accent sucks and I sound so stupid because my first language is mandarin. I guess the best way for you to learn is to keep practising with your family and watch cantonese movies to see how some words are pronounced.
news: http://www.youtube.com/user/appleactionews [video=youtube;X9KFH1Eng8Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KFH1Eng8Q"[/video] convo: [video=youtube;0ZUTL5Ypnos]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZUTL5Ypnos"[/video] http://www.youtube.com/ayojinhk honestly, i dont know any users that consistently eng sub their canto vids.
I am the reverse of you. My Canto is okay, but my Mando sucks. When you know one and trying to learn the other is tough!! -flow
我聽就，廣東人宜家講國語。:/ HK = last stronghold SUPPORT CANTONESE [video=youtube;Nl4LsYM19jU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl4LsYM19jU"[/video]
Yeah it's not ideal, but you're right that you can get a few words. More helpful, I've found, is to watch Canto dubbed versions of movies you're already familiar with. For instance, I've been watching Stars Wars in Canto and not only do Darth Vader and C3PO sound hilarious, but I generally know the dialogue and plot, so I find I actually "understand" and pick up more of what they say (without english subtitles getting in the way).
