CantonesePod

July 31, 2008

Lesson 5:I want to go to Beijing in Cantonese

Filed under: Cantonese, Podcast Lessons — Kaibo @ 9:39 am

Hi, everyone, 大家好。
In our last lesson, we learned how to say where you are from.
In Today’s lesson, we are going to learn to say the places you want to go.
Now sentence patterns:
1)I want to go to (Beijing…)
我想去(北京)
2)He needs to go to (Hong Kong…)
佢要去(香港)
3)My wife has been to San Francisco and Los Angeles
我太太去过(三藩市同埋罗省)

Cities and places:
Guangzhou(Canton),Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Taipei, Taiwan, Las Vegas, New York, Saigon, Sydney,
广州,上海,苏州,杭州,台北,台湾,拉斯维加斯,纽约,西贡,悉尼(雪梨)

Try to use what you have learned:
I want to go to Hong Kong.
I’ve been to Guangzhou.

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [5:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (738)

Let me know what other places you want to say.

July 25, 2008

Podcast Lesson This Week: delayed

Filed under: Podcast Lessons — Kaibo @ 2:18 pm

Hi, Everyone,

For those expecting Lesson Five, sorry that we have to delay till next week due to our beta issue and changes on our sites (we are trying to make it a better learning environment to help you.) Yes, we need more contributors, so if you are interested in helping, please let us know.

Let’s just relax and have fun this week and forget about this week lesson:

Did you know a new Cantonese Chat Room is launched at

http://ChineseBay.com/chinese/ctchat.htm

and maybe you can find some Cantonese learning buddy there.

Have a nice weekend!

CantonesePod.com Team

July 19, 2008

Standard Cantonese 廣府話(廣州話)

Filed under: Cantonese — Kaibo @ 8:11 pm

What is Standard Cantonese?

The language spoken by the people in Canton? Canton is now officially called Guangzhou 广州, which is the capital of Guangdong Province in Southern China.

It is generally agreed that Standard Cantonese is the dialect spoken natively in and around the cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau in Southern China. As it is said in Wikipedia, “unlike Standard Mandarin, there is no official agency to regulate Standard Cantonese”. The translation of the word “Cantonese” into Chinese is not easy as there are so many different opinions. Since Canton is now called Guangzhou, Cantonese should be traditional: 廣州話 or 廣府話; simplified: 广州话 or 广府话; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu huà or Guángfǔ huà; Jyutping: Gwong2zau1 wa2 or Gwong2fu2 wa2. Guangzhou is the city’s name. Guangfu means the capital of Guangdong Province, also refering to the city.

Cantonese is just short form for Standard Cantonese. We also call it traditional: 廣東話; simplified: 广东话; pinyin: Guǎngdōng huà; Jyutping: Gwong2dong1 wa2 (meaning speech of Guangdong province) because its influential status in Guangdong province. In Guangdong province, there are also quite a few dialects which are very different from each other.

I hope I do not bore you to death… so I’d better stop here. For more information and discussion, please refer to the Wiki article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Cantonese

July 17, 2008

Lesson 4: Where are you from?

Filed under: Cantonese, Podcast Lessons — Kaibo @ 11:37 am

Lesson 4 Where Are You From?

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [2:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1202)

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [0:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (746)

English: Where are you from?
Cantonese: nei5 hai2 bin1dou6 lai4
你 喺 边度 来
nei5: you
hai2 (Cant.) to be located at; here means from
bin1dou6: where
lai4: come

English: I’m from the US.
Cantonese: ngo5 hai2 mei5gwok3 lai4
我喺美国来。

English: I’m American Chinese.
Cantonese:ngo5 hai6 mei5zik6 waa4jan4
我系美籍华人。

English: Born in Hong Kong, grew up in the US.
Cantonese: hai2 hoeng1gong2 ceot1sai3 hai2 mei5gwok3 zoeng2daai6
喺香港出世,喺美国长大。

hoeng1gong2 香港:Hong Kong
mei5gwok3 美国: beautiful country = America
Please note that in the recording, “lazy” sound “gok” is used instead of “gwok” as in our daily life. We did this on purpose as you should also understand it when you hear it from a native Cantonese speaker.

English: I’m American
Cantonese:ngo5 hai6 mei5gwok3 jan4
我系美国人。

Extra in the 2nd mp3 file:
1)Please tell me where you are from.
请问你喺边度来。
2)I am from the US.
我喺美国来。
3)I’m from Canada.我喺加拿大来。
4) I’m from Japan.我喺日本来。
5) I’m from Korea.我喺韩国来。
6) I’m from South Korea.我喺南韩来。
7)I’m from UK (England).我喺英国。
8) I’m from Sweden. 我喺瑞典来。
9)I’m from the Netherlands.我系荷兰人。
10) I’m from Hong Kong.我系香港人。
11) I’m from Macau我系澳门人。
12) I’m from Vietnam。我系越南人 (Note: 1st one jyut6laam4jan4 uses “lazy” sound. 2nd one jyut6naam4jan4 is “correct” or official. We let you hear it because young people are using lazy sound everywhere.)
13)I’m Cantonese.我系广东人。
14)I’m from Brazil.我系巴西人。

Not: in the mp3:
Holland is a very beautiful country.
Formal Cantonese:荷兰是一个非常美丽的国家。

July 14, 2008

How to say:days of the week in Cantonese?

Filed under: Cantonese, Cantonese how to — Kaibo @ 11:34 pm

It should be easier to remember the names for the days of the week in Cantonese if you’ve already know how to count from 1 to 7:

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [0:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1022)

sing1kei4yat1
星期一 星期二 星期三 星期四 星期五 星期六 星期日
sing1 = star/planet
kei4 = period
jat1 = one

Another way to say the days of the week is

礼拜一 礼拜二 礼拜三 礼拜四 礼拜五 礼拜六 礼拜(日)
lai5bai3 (礼拜 ) means worship so we just use lai5bai3 for Sunday.
And Monday is the first day after Sunday (lai5bai3)

July 13, 2008

How to say: will you marry me in Cantonese (1)

Filed under: Cantonese, Cantonese how to — Kaibo @ 8:40 am

How can a man say “will you marry me?” in Cantonese?

nei5 jyun6ji3 gaa3 bei2 ngo5 maa3
你愿意嫁畀我吗?
nei5 = you
jyun6ji3 = be willing to
gaa3 bei2 = marry to (a man)
ngo5 = me/I/my

So “ngo5 jyun6ji3 gaa3 bei2 nei5″
= (the girl said:) I am willing to marry you.

Some still asked me how to say “how are you?” in Cantonese:
Now that you know how to pronounce “nei5″ “hou2″ “maa3″, you already know how to say it
“nei5 hou2 maa3 你好吗?” = How are you?

How to say “will you marry me” by a girl to man? Let’s learn it next time.

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [0:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1464)

How to say: I miss you in Cantonese

Filed under: Cantonese, Cantonese how to — Kaibo @ 8:26 am

So how to say I miss you in Cantonese?

Here we go:

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [0:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2632)

ngo5 hou2 gwaa3zyu6 nei5
我 好 挂住 你 = I miss you very much
hou2 = very, good. Used here for stree.
gwaa3zyu6 = miss (someone)

Can’t find what you want to say? Bookmark us and come back here in a couple of days and we may have it for you. Or you can just contact us to ask for it.

July 11, 2008

How to say:My Cantonese Is Not Good in Cantonese

Filed under: Cantonese, Cantonese how to — Kaibo @ 8:24 pm

ngo5 ge3 gwong2 dung1 waa2 m4 hou2
我嘅广东话唔好。 = My Cantonese is not good.
(我嘅廣東話唔好。)

ngo5 = my
ge3 = of; someone’s
ngo5 ge3 = my/mine
nei5ge3 = your/yours
gwong2dung1waa2 = Cantonese; the dialect of Guangdong province.
m4 = not
hou2 = good

我嘅广东话唔系好好。 = My Cantonese is not very good.
(Note: that in the above link there is a mistake for the word 广, which should be pronounced gwong2 instead of jim)
m4 hai6 = is not (be not)
hou2 hou2 = very good ( the first hou2 is an adverb, meaning very. The 2nd means good.)

Have a nice weekend.

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [0:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1405)

July 10, 2008

Lesson 3: Please tell me what you are doing

Filed under: Cantonese, Mandarin, Podcast Lessons — Kaibo @ 9:48 am

Here’s our podcast Cantonese lesson three .

Thur. or Friday is the time for our weekly update for a new lesson.
I’d like to give thanks to all the good feedback to encourage us to do more and better.
We haven’t got any “bad” feedback yet, but any feedback is welcome
. Your suggestion for improvement is very important to us. Please subscribe to us with the best blog reader

Without forward ado, here’s our weekly lesson:

Lesson Three: Please tell me, what you are doing.

Hi, everyone, did you miss us? I’ve been missing you! Seriously!
Welcome to CantonesePod.com.
Today we are going to focus on some useful verbs.
Let’s get actions!

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [5:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (901)

First, the sentence pattern of this lesson:

请问(請 問) …
cing2man6 …
Please tell me so and so.. (more…)

July 5, 2008

Ho Kwok Wing - Speaking Cantonese - 河國榮

Filed under: Cantonese, youtube — Kaibo @ 10:35 am


Scripts:
我系河国荣. 我系一个澳洲鬼佬.
ngo5 hai6 ho4 gwok3 wing3. ngo5 hai6 jat1 go3 ou3 zau1 gwai2 lou2.
ngo5 = I/me; hai6 = am/is/are/to be; ho4 = river(surname here)
gwok3 = country; wing3 = glory; jat1 go3 = one (person);
ou3 zau1 = Australia;
gwai2 lou2 = a humorous way to call “foreigner(s)”, it does not really mean literately “ghost men”. Even those pretty Cantonese ladies who married “gwai2 lou2″, they say “ngo5 lou2 gung1 hai6 gwai2 lou2 我老公系鬼佬 (my husband is a (white)foreigner. ) And their husbands willingly call themselves “ngo5 hai6 gwai2 lou2 我系鬼佬”. That’s why Ho Kwo Wing called himself “gwai2 ou2″ here.

gwai2 can also be used as an adverb: e.g. gwai2 gam2 lek1(鬼咁叻) means very very smart.
So gwai2 also means genius/spirit (精灵), not “devil” or “ghost”
He said I’m a foreigner from Australia.

In our Cantonese dictionary, “gwai2 lou2″ is a good word while “Chinaman” is a bad word.

Yes, Kwo Wing, we all love you, (gwai2 lou2)!

Next Page »

Powered by WordPress