Learn Cantonese/Mandarin Here

Archive for the ‘Cantonese’ Category

Cantonese people in Guangzhou (used to called Canton, where People speak Cantonese) felt very depressed recently because the government suggested that they need to use Mandarin for news on their major TV channels. Many of them took to to street to protest.

We Cantonese love our own language while we are glad to learn Mandarin, or Putonhua 普通話, the official Chinese language. However, Cantonese, the most influential Chinese dialect in China and around the world, need to keep alive for its important value. This beautiful language has the longer history than Mandarin and most of us found it more colorful, rich in its cultural background and root. ChineseBay.com began as a site to teach basic Cantonese, now started to help all Cantonese-speaking people to keep this language alive.

Interestingly to mention, Channel 26 (KTSF) in San Francisco, give the prime time to Cantonese news (at 7pm) instead of Mandarin news( at 10pm). So you can see the high status of Cantonese language among us overseas Chinese. Cantonese, Yeah!

I happened to find a very good Cantonese learning video by MissYau’s Asian-SuperAsian Channel.
We can learn these “Scary” Cantonese expressions:

1. 你玩嘢啊?（lei wan yeh ah?)  Are you kidding (me)? Playing games?
2. 你买定棺材啊你！（lei mai ding goon choi ah lei.)  Put a down payment on your coffin. Or get your coffin ready. It’s a threat or curse.  Are you scared yet? Watch this fun video.
3. 唔好煩啊你 （Mm – mo – fan – ah – lei. ) Don’t be a nuisance. Or “Stop bothering me.”

Please note that she does not use Jyutping.  For Jyutping, it is like this:

1.

简体	你	玩	嘢	啊
繁體	你	玩	嘢	啊
粤拼	nei5	waan4	je5	aa4
Yale	nei5	waan4	ye5	aa4

2.

简体	你	买	定	棺	材	啊	你
繁體	你	買	定	棺	材	啊	你
粤拼	nei5	maai5	ding6	gun1	coi4	aa1	nei5
Yale	nei5	maai5	ding6	gun1	choi4	aa1	nei5

3.

简体	唔	好	烦	啊	你
繁體	唔	好	煩	啊	你
粤拼	m4	hou2	faan4	aa1	nei5
Yale	m4	hou2	faan4	aa1	nei5

More and more people are using “lei” instead of “nei” for 你(you), even for people older than me.

Is it SCARY Cantonese or not, but it’s basic Cantonese, or colloquial Cantonese. It is Cantonese youtube, or Youtube Cantonese lesson. Way to go MissYau!

Maria Wong created a great food channel in Youtube. Unlike others, her videos are all made with her heart and we really love it.

This week she teaches how to make “Fried Prawns in spicy sauce”:

You don’t need to understand all the Cantonese she speaks here, but at least the first sentence:
大家好， 今日廚師介紹做過“幹燒大蝦”。
Jyutping:daai6gaa1 hou2 gam1 jat6 cyu4si1 gaai3siu6 zou6 gwo3 gon3siu1 daai6 haa1
Hello everyone, today the chef introduce (teach) how to make a “dry burn big shrimp (Fried Prawns in spicy sauce)”.
She repeated “daai6 haa1″ (prawns) or just “haa1″(shrimps) many times.

Stay tuned, we will help to learn Cantonese as well as Maria’s cooking. She is from Hong Kong and lives in Germany.

This is an advanced Cantonese lesson, which trains your listening comprehension, but the beginners can pick up some basic phrases from her speech too.

Although we had this on this site before, but here is a new version with a little girl learning to say “Happy Mother’s Day”

母亲节快乐
mŭ qīn jié kuài lè
母 亲 节 快 乐

Mandarin first, then Cantonese,then Mandarin word by word again.

From ChineseBay, we all wish you a great Mother’s Day ever!

Play Audio Comment.

I really want to tell you how much miss my mother in Guangzhou. I have not seen her for nearly four years.

Do you want to find a great meetup in Oakland where you can learn Mandarin and Cantonese or share your knowledge of Chinese language? Or just to make some Chinese friends?

Oakland Mandarin & Cantonese Meetup is way to go! They were founded in May, 2009 by John and now already have over 300 members! Actually their full name is “Bay Area Cantonese and Mandarin speakers” and it is “for young Chinese Americans that like to have fun and do exciting things. Kayaking, rock climbing, sailing, and mountain bike riding are some of the outdoor activities that we will do on weekends. Indoor activities will include bar hoping, wine tasting, Chinese dessert sampling, and karaokeing”

Lesson One: Hello!

(Just click on the Chinese characters for the sound of Cantonese)

Lesson Two: He has money! I don’t have time! How do you say these in Cantonese?

Lesson Three: Holiday Greetings! How do you say Happy Birthday in Cantonese?

Where or how can you learn Cantonese in Singapore?

I must thank all ChineseBay visitors from Singapore who encourage us to open a special section here at ChineseBay.com for more people in Singapore to learn Cantonese online.

ChineseBay is now based in Silicon Valley, Northern California, USA, but we got lots of visitors all over the world and a look at our alexa ranking ( refer to http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/chinesebay.com ) Today, our ranking is Singapore is 77,731 while US ranking is 118,445 among millions of web sites globally. Encouraging numbers but we still need to work harder to offer you all, whether in Singapore or not, better Cantonese learning materials for you to master Cantonese with ease and fun.

Where To Learn Cantonese in Singapore?
Answer: Two places you can learn or pick up some basic or practical Cantonese:
1) The local Meetup http://cantonese.meetup.com/90/ The Singapore Cantonese Language Meetup Group organized by the nice and lovely girl Hasumi.
They now have 269 Cantonese Speakers and growing. Come and meet other local Cantonese Speakers to practice the language. They will have “34th Cantonese Meetup Happy Lunar New Year in 2 weeks”.

2) Want to learn some basic Cantonese first before you join them? You can learn online at these web sites:
A) ChineseBay.com : Basic Cantonese (more free lessons are coming!) | Cantonese Phrasebook With Sound

B) CantonesePod.com: Cantonese Podcasts and MP3 Download with short lessons.
C) MyCantonese.net : three free Cantonese lessons with sound in Flash.
D) www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk: Written chinese character help sheets with cantonese pronunciation

We are testing the learning TV for Cantonese learners.
Different video programs will be replayed again and again until you learned all of them.
But we will put on new ones every month or maybe even weekly.

Click this to turn on the TV now: Read the rest of this entry »

How to say “Merry Christmas” in Mandarin & Cantonese?
聖誕快樂 （圣诞快乐)
Mandarin:sheng4 dan4 kuai4 le4 (all 4th tones)
Cantonese: sing3 daan3 faai3 lok6 (all 3rd tone but the last one 6th tone) Read the rest of this entry »

Cantonese Phrase Book in PDF format with sound

Finally, upon requests from many users, we publish a beta version of Cantonese Phrasebook.

To download, click to this post Read the rest of this entry »