Places to learn Cantonese online

[AccruedExpenditure]

I'm looking to pick up some cantonese over the next couple of years. Any good sites out there?

 

[NickelTitanium]

go to Hong Kong. stop playing on the internet

 

[Mrvile]

It's nearly impossible to learn Chinese over the internet.

 

[MoPHo]

very hard to learn online. different tones when you speak...i'd say just try and teach an english class to fluent chinese speakers and see if you can pick up some there.

 

[UncleWai]

Cantonese is a vernacular. It's way different from written Chinese, you can't learn it through reading. Also it's full of slangs, so good luck.

 

[Chrono]

diu lay lo mo.
there. i've contributed.

 

[intogamer]

gnow hoe tung oar
I am very hungry

yeah it is going to be hard... as uncle wai mentioned
your better off with a canto guy

 

[dighn]

poh gai

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: dighn
poh gai

poh gai jing dee bubble tea bay gnow:laugh:

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: Chrono
diu lay lo mo.
there. i've contributed.

I was gonna say that. PK!!!

 

[intogamer]

as you can see in his myspace....

:laugh:

 

[stan394]

As you may / may not know, Cantonese is one of the many dialects of the Chinese language, with Mandarin being the 'official' dialect of China. Across almost all of the dialects, the writing and reading part are basically the same. The only catch is that, in mainland China, people write simplified Chinese characters while people in Hong Kong and some part of southern China, write traditional chinese characters. The characters look quite drasticaly different actually.

What is interesting about the Cantonese dialects is that what people speak is actually very different from what they write. So even if you learned written chinese, it is still far from 'learning cantonese'. Even if you are able to speak individual characters in cantonese, the sentence will come out nonsense.

As far as I know, there is no 'grammar' for Cantonese. So don't expect to learn from a formal way. I am sure there will be common short phases tutorial on the internet so you can get a basic conversation going. But at the end of the day, perhaps the most effective way of learning Cantonese is to go and live in Hong Kong.

 

[intogamer]

AccruedExpenditure wants to poh gai some chinese girls

 

[V00DOO]

Cantonese is a tough language to learn. Even for people that speak Mandrin, they still sound funny speaking Cantonese. Why Cantonese? Why not Mandrin since most Chinese speak Mandrin.

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: V00DOO
Cantonese is a tough language to learn. Even for people that speak Mandrin, they still sound funny speaking Cantonese. Why Cantonese? Why not Mandrin since most Chinese speak Mandrin.

But Mandarin is a tough language for Cantonese people to learn

I failed all my classes
good thing they don't have summer for that crap

 

[EvilYoda]

I'm gonna try the Pimsleur audio CDs for Canto...mostly just to freak out my Canto-speaking best friend, heh. She took Mandarin classes at UofM, so she's always had that over me...bah.

 

[intogamer]

so how are you going to do it?

 

[intogamer]

?

 

[Vertimus]

Don't bother taking it.

If you are, be sure to be fluent in manderian first. It's much more practical from both an educational and economical standpoint.

 

[intogamer]

when you translate chinese to english... it won't sound right... all the words are wrong/mixed up

 

[Vertimus]

Originally posted by: intogamer
when you translate chinese to english... it won't sound right... all the words are wrong/mixed up

That's pretty much the same with any language not from similar roots.

 

[cdan]

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/
But if you want to really learn Cantonese the best way is with a textbook. One called Colloquial Cantonese is a good start. Teach Yourself Cantonese is also not bad.