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Journey through Asian languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6819 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 17 of 25 03 February 2008 at 9:08am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Asiafeverr, check out my blog at http://cantonese.hk
I've written quite a bit of material and insights into learning Cantonese. You can actually hear me on the radio too. I've done over 5000 hours of Cantonese study, I live in Hong Kong and speak Cantonese all the time. However, I still have a foreign accent. So unless you are talented, you're stuck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6334 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 18 of 25 03 February 2008 at 10:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you for your input WANNABEAFREAK,
I've skimmed through your blog. The post "When in Rome do as the Romans do" is a little bit discouraging, people had the opposite reaction toward my Mandarin when I was in Hong Kong (they told me how great it was and kept speaking to me in Mandarin, etc). I really hope people won't have this kind of reaction if I speak to them in their native language. I think I see what method you are using and I think I will also use monologs/dialogs and http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/ to learn the language. You made a post in which you said you didn't liked Pimsleur; I already have access to Pimsleur Cantonese, do you think I should not use it at all? I really enjoyed Pimsleur Mandarin and it did a great job in getting me started, and I believe it would do the same for Cantonese. What kind of method would you recommend exactly? Learning the words of a speech/idiom/sentence, listening to a recorded version of the transcript a lot of times and move on to the next? Some people on this forum recomend shadowing (listening to the recording and speaking simultaneously), do you believe it is a good idea? By the way, the book I am currently using contains great pronunciation charts with audio and I think I will stick with these charts in order to learn the basic sounds. Edited by Asiafeverr on 03 February 2008 at 11:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6819 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 19 of 25 03 February 2008 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, Hong Kong people love to praise people but from experience its a reaction that shouldn't be really be taken too seriously. Just saying a few words like "nei hou" will get "wow, you cantonese is so good!" I'm not sure how many people you spoke to but I'm pretty sure LONG-TERM, especially anything professional, people will be direct and tell you its easier to speak English!
Pimsleur is the basic of all basics. You won't get far with it in Cantonese. It doesn't harm to use it, but realistically speaking, you'll need thousands and thousands of words that Pimsleur cannot offer! I recommend Steve Kaufmann's method, you should read it up on his blog - I have also written about it. I pesonally try to learn as many words as possible - at the start around 200-300 per week. Learn the dialogues until they are automatic (1000 times) and then move on. I've never done shadowing but Maxb (on this forum has with good results). I don't have the time for this as I need Cantonese everyday for practical usage, which means my time is better spent learning vocab. I wouldn't learn the grammar directly... its better learn through thousands of hours of listening to transcripts and using http://cantonese.sheik.co.uk when you are not sure.
I wouldn't. I never did either. Just go directly into basic dialogues. Use http://chinese-lessons.com/. I reckon you'll fail if you try to learn both Cantonese and Mandarin at the same time. My advice is to drop the Mandarin and go hardcore on Cantonese, otherwise you'll realise that after many years you still cannot speak Canto. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7033 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 20 of 25 04 February 2008 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Once again, the Chinese have the most perfect analogy to describe this situation:
追二兔者不得一兔 I think that should be the mantra of this website. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rekunoto Senior Member United States Joined 6167 days ago 104 posts - 105 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 21 of 25 13 February 2008 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
wannabefreak, just because you failed does not mean asiafeverr will also. He may be more serious about this than you. (Note: I mean no disrespect, I was just stating that comparing your success to other's isn't right) Asiafeverr, I think if you work hard you can achieve a native level of fluency in Cantonese. Good luck! Edited by Rekunoto on 13 February 2008 at 3:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6334 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 22 of 25 24 February 2008 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
^_^ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Lawrence Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6174 days ago 149 posts - 149 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 23 of 25 24 February 2008 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Congratulations! :D
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| rae0011 Tetraglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 6360 days ago 10 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, Mandarin, English, SpanishB2 | Message 24 of 25 22 May 2008 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Congratulations! I just read your story and the responses... What should I say??
Ga you (good luck/work hard)!! You can definitely try to learn Mandarin and Cantonese at the same time. Just make sure you remember the words and phrases can be quite different between them. I'm not sure if it's very difficult for the Chinese learners but if you could, learn the sound, writing and meaning of the words at the same time. I met people who spoke excellent Cantonese (or Mandarin) but it's sad that they don't know how to write and read Chinese words. It isn't that difficult and you will find it rewarding at the end ;) PS UST is a very good university and my brother is studying his Master degree there ;) Well, if you need any help from local people, feel free to drop me a line! Bon chance! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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