ahhh I wish I can understand canto.. Been trying to learn it by looking at the chinese words, but still cannot catch any ball..
I think most of the songs don't have a true meaning now. The best ones are in the 90's. Now I just listen to the melodies and don't really care about the meaning because there's none most of the time.
i couldnt agree more. there are only a few good artists left in hk. most of the new ones are crap. i find that mando songs r better now. they have better melodies than the hk ones. the hk ones use the same basic easy melodies everytime to accomodate the new singers that cant sing.
I've got this problem all the time. When I listen to Canto songs I don't understand the majority what they're saying, especially if it's those saying or using a lot of written Chinese. All I know that most of the times they sing about love. Some songs which uses a lot of spoken Cantonese I can understand them a bit more. But nowadays the lyrics are really bad. Though I can't understand a lot, but listening to old and new songs you can really hear the difference. Those old songs have at least meanings even though it's also about love.
i can speak fluent canto, but for sum reason i can't understand the lyrics in canto songs at all. But, for canto hiphop, i can.
Listening to Canto pop is equivalent to listening old English to me. Perhaps I should ask William Shakespear (Wong) for translation
true. =p I usually dont understand every word in cantonese songs cuz we dont use the same word that we speak than we write,.. but else i do understand the mostly... btw born in sweden so my chinese isnt the best hihi ;p
The problem here is that most overseas Chinese, like the ABCs and the CBCs only THINK that they're fluent in Cantonese. Fact is, a sixth grader in Hong Kong is a lot more fluent in Cantonese than we are. Ask any American sixth grader what the words are in the most popular songs in the US, and they'll quote you the lyrics. That's because they're fluent in English. Now if someone comes to the US and can't do that, would you consider them to be fluent in English? You'll probably laugh at them if they claimed to be, wouldn't you? Well, just like a lot of native Chinese speakers laugh at ABCs who claim fluency in Cantonese, but can't even understand the lyrics in a song that any sixth grader can... From my experience, most ABCs only speak Chinese food Cantonese. That is, they can order in a Chinese restaurant and exchange pleasantries. Start talking about global warming or the war in Iraq, or the amount of cholesterol, or carbon dioxide, and most ABCs are lost without a clue. Inotherwords, they don't speak Chinese at all, except for the stuff that would get them by in a Chinese restaurant. Ralph
i have problems understanding lyrics too but nowadays i just listening for the tune and music rather than trying to listen to the words closely
That's very true. That's why I wish that I now grew up in hk instead of here. mmm.. as for canto songs, it's ok, but I have to at least try to understand. However, at least trying is the difference between being zoned out and zoning in.
@ compliant : lol learn 2 listen? ^^ but yea canto music is hard to understand cause they use formal words etc.. most of the time i do understand a part but most of the word is just to formal to understand... but still i can feel da flow
well, its not just that they sing too fast, for a person who only knows how to speak cantonese but doesn't know how to read or write, formal words are really difficult to understand
I just listen to songs for their melody, beside most of the current songs in hongkong pop is either about love, or being dump.
