Archive for the ‘Cantonese’ Category
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 »
Chinese Radio 2
For money or not for money? It’s a non-profit radio program on money.
MoneyRadio.org is mainly in Chinese Cantonese with topics on Money, Finance.
I became half of an investment expert by listening to this Cantonese program on Radio. Now it’s available online with archive so you can review what was broadcast in the past, which is great!
(I have to post another article about Chinese radio because of the bit.ly error.)
Happy Children’s Day!
儿童节快乐！
(Will we celebrate it in the US? Click to find out )
Note: 6/2/2009- Sorry bit.ly messed up the link above. Now it’s fixed:
http://chinesebay.com/blog/2009/06/happy-childrens-day
| Cantonese Lesson One | |
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“The Qingming Festival (traditional Chinese: 清明節; simplified Chinese: 清明节; pinyin: Qīngmíngjié, or Ching Ming Festival in Hong Kong, Vietnamese language: Tết Thanh Minh), meaning Clear and Bright Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar (see Chinese calendar). Every leap year, Qing Ming is on April 5th.”
For 2003, 2007, 2011, Qingming is on April 5th (leap year every four years), but for 2001-2002, 2004-2006,2008-2010, it falls on April 4th. So this year 2009, we will have Qingming Festival on April 4th, the same for next year 2010.
“Qingming is a statutory public holiday in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It has long been a public holiday in the latter three jurisdictions, but became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008 for the first time since 1949.”
Qingming was frequently mentioned in Chinese literature. Among these, the most famous one is probably Du Mu’s poem (simply titled “Qingming”):
清明
杜牧
| Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | pinyin | English translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 清明時節雨紛紛 | 清明时节雨纷纷 | qīng míng shí jié yǔ fēn fēn | A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day; |
| 路上行人欲斷魂 | 路上行人欲断魂 | lù shàng xíng rén yù duàn hún | The mourner’s heart is breaking on his way. |
| 借問酒家何處有 | 借问酒家何处有 | jiè wèn jiǔ jiā hé chù yǒu | Where can a winehouse be found to drown his sadness? |
| 牧童遙指杏花村 | 牧童遥指杏花村 | mù tóng yáo zhǐ xìng huā cūn | A cowherd points to Almond Flower (Xing Hua) Village in the distance. |
(source from wikipedia)
Other English names of this festival: Tomb-sweeping Day (China mainland translation); Ching Ming (official in Hong Kong); Pure Brightness
(For other Chinese festivals and holidays, check out the Chinese Lunar Calender for 2009 )
清明
【唐】杜牧
清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有？牧童遥指杏花村。
作者简介：杜牧（公元803－约852年）唐代诗人。
You can play or down the mp3 for this famous Tang peom in Cantonese and Mandarin here:
Posted in Cantonese, Cantonese-vs-Mandarin, China, Chinese festivals, Mandarin, News | 
Tags: Chinese festivals, mp3, peom
Just found a good link for Mandarin speakers to learn Cantonese:
轻松学粤语 http://hemanhong.inetradio.cn/program/3361.aspx
11 FREE LESSONS!
You may find some good comparison between Mandarin and Cantonese too, but you need to know how to read Mandarin first. Enjoy!
