I want to learn Cantonese.

Hey i want to learn cantonese not really sure if this is the right spot to post this but couldnt really decide on a better forum. Anyway anyone know of any good online and free resources for learning cantonese?

Word up dude!

Don't bother, I know you have a house in Hong Kong, Read that somewhere! I live in the NT's as well! Yes in Hong Kong they speak Cantonese, but it's a dialect, and with be passed by Mandarin in 10 to 15 years from now.

It's being used less and less in the business world, and most peoples over here will understand Mandarin. Schools are starting to focus more on Mandarin and English

Also Mandarin is a lot easier to learn and speak.

Mandarin has 4 very distinct tones.

Cantonese has between 6 and 9 depending on who teaches you or what book you read. So you really need to learn it from a 'live' teacher, a cd will have you saying things all wrong! Trust me on this "Dirty shoes" can become "dirty (extremely bad word for a womans private area) ****" with one slip of a tone!

My Cantonese is passable, I can understand more than I can say. But I rarely need to use it as even the spotty students working in maccy D's or 7-11 speak more than enough English.

Do yourself a huge flavour and learn Mandarin - My bestest advice of the day! (so far)



P.S. Where is the house in the NT's, is it a house or a flat. Enquiring minds and all that?

Hmm...
Yeah i was going to post this topic as I want to learn Cantonese or Mandarin. The trouble is my Cantonese is so #$%# that when i speak people laugh at my funny accent. I mainly want to learn Mandarin/Cantonese to talk with my cousins in China who speak both Mandarin and Cantonese but not english. When i went there last i had to talk to them in a mix of Mandarin/Cantonese/Hakka. So i just want to learn a bit more so i can string some sentences together. Any resources for learning Mandarin? I know a little but not much.

Also where abouts in the NT's do you live? It's OK if you don't want to disclose your location. Our house is on Kut-O island. We have to catch a ferry from Sha Tau Kok to get there.

Man that's cool! The marine park in that area has been on the news tha last few days, cos they spotted a load of sharks swimmin about minding their own business.

I think their looking for a Chinese take away!!

I live in M-O-S.

Your best bet would be to get your family in China to send you some stuff, they will be able to get their hands on the errr how shall I say - cheaper products. I have the Linguaphone mandarin stuff, but the discs are no use with out the books and I'm shi5 lazy, even though it's on my ipod!!

Still recon Mandarin will be your best bet.

I'd really like to learn some Hakka though. A friend I grew up with in the UK is Hakka; his family live out in Yuen Long - That's like Hong Kong red neck country!! So I've been told...

I hate to chime in on what looks like a private conversation, but I've never been shy that way.

Why not teach them English

The entire world seems to be working on the one language, or at least some bastardized version of it. While you teach someone that only speaks Cantonese you can't help but pick up their language as well.

Sometimes your best teacher is your student.

Well I don't see them enough to teach them english. Actually the first time i met them was last year in November LoL. This is because it is my Dad's half brother and his kids. It was also the first time my Dad had met him.
I got my uncle to send get me some stuff to learn while he was over there but he brang back like some book and tape for leaning english and the entire book was in English then chinese charaters briefly explaining what it meant, which was no use to me.

What happened to the edit button? Anyway i wanted to add that when i left to go back home. He said to me that he will try to learn some english so that when we come back we can communicate better and i said i will try to do the same.

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
I hate to chime in on what looks like a private conversation, but I've never been shy that way.

Why not teach them English

The entire world seems to be working on the one language, or at least some bastardized version of it. While you teach someone that only speaks Cantonese you can't help but pick up their language as well.

Sometimes your best teacher is your student.

Yep, that's what I do!

I also get some to teach me Mandarin and Japanese as well, which is fun!

Try checking out a site like Craigslist. Lots of people will trade language lessons for free. I'm thinking that because you are in Australia, you will have just as many people looking to trade English lessons for Cantonese/Mandarin lessons as we do in Canada. Plus you might make a new friend.

Of course, you would need to take all the normal precautions when meeting a strange person for the first few times.