Hanyu 汉语 Hànyǔ

I haven’t got around to posting much here lately. I’ve been putting most of the Cantonese stuff into the free online Moodle course at http://cantonesecourse.com . I love WordPress - but it wasn’t designed for learning.

Eventually I’ll have all the 50+ dialogues from the 15 lessons of Cantonese FSI Volume 1 made into YouTube videos. To date I’ve managed to churn out over 20 of them. No claims that these are great videos - just a modest attempt at experimenting with materials for learning a neat language online.

Hate these rather crass and vulgar efforts at “edutainment” a la YouTube? Question their pedagogical value? Never mind - you can always just download the .zip of the dialogues as mp3s.

Dialogue 1

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Dialogue 2

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Dialogue 3

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Dialogue 4

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Dialogue 5

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Dialogue 6

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Dialogue 7

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Learn Cantonese Book 1, published by Hanyu Press, is now available as a free .pdf.
Learn Cantonese Book 1 contains transcripts in traditional Chinese characters, Yale Romanization and English translation for all the approximately 60 dialogues in lessons 1-15 (originally from the FSI’s Cantonese: Basic Course, Volume 1). It also contains vocabulary lists and a Cantonese - English Glossary. Finish the 15 lessons in Learn Cantonese Book 1 and you should know around 600 of the most basic and daily words and expressions in Cantonese.

Free pdf of the book and mp3 audio files for all dialogues can be downloaded from http://cantonesecourse.com

The paperback will be out soon!

This is Lesson 4 in our Learn Cantonese Video Course with simple everyday dialogues. Mr Wong goes to visit a young lady friend (Chan Siuje) in Mong Kok and practices his Cantonese.

Here is the dialogue in traditional Chinese characters, Yale Cantonese romanization, and the English translation:
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I’m not interested in American politics. Quite frankly, I’m with Stanley Bing at Fortune China. Stanley wrote a piece in Chinese entitled 乔已经够多了 (I’ve had enough of Joe).

Me, too.

On a bad day, I’d be less polite and 叫阿祖食屎!

But, like it not, the US is having an election and the rest of the world has little choice but to watch - if not react.

So, how to turn all this into a positive learning experience?
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This is is the third in a series of Cantonese learning videos with simple everyday dialogues. Sound files were extracted and recycled from the US Foreign Service Institute’s (FSI) Basic Cantonese 1. Avatars were made with CrazyTalk. Photos of Hong Kong are distributed under a Creative Commons licence and/or GNU. Songs are copyright of various copyright holders. Everything else is public domain.

In Lesson 3, you learn how to say the names of several languages in Cantonese and ask who speaks which language. Mr Hak, an American visitor, meets a local lady in Mong Kok and practices his Cantonese.

(BTW, the Deng Lijun song is in Hokkien - not Cantonese.)

Here is the dialogue in traditional Chinese characters, Yale Cantonese romanization, and the English translation:

A: 李生識係識講日本話呀?
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This is the second in a series of Cantonese learning videos with simple everyday dialogues. Sound files were extracted and recycled from the US Foreign Service Institute’s (FSI) Basic Cantonese 1. Avatars were made with CrazyTalk. Photos of Hong Kong are distributed under a Creative Commons licence and/or GNU. Everything else is public domain.

In Lesson 2, Mr Ho takes a leisurely evening stroll through the streets of Mong Kok, meets a pretty young lady and asks her her name.

Here is the transcript in Yale Romanization, traditional Chinese and English translation.

Síujé gwaising a?
Ngóh sing Chàhn. Sīnsàang gwaising a?
Síusing Hòh. Chàhn síujé haih m̀hhaih Gwóngdùngyàhn a?
M̀hhaih a. Ngóh haih Seuhnghóiyàhn. Néih nē?
Néih haih m̀hhaih Méihgwokyàhn a?
Haih a. Ngóh haih Méihgwokyàhn.

小姐貴姓呀?
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This is the first in a series of Cantonese learning videos with simple everyday dialogues. Sound files were extracted and recycled from the US Foreign Service Institute’s (FSI) Basic Cantonese 1. Photos of Sham Shui Po are distributed under a Creative Commons licence and/or GNU. Everything else is public domain.

Two acquaintances on their way to computer parts in scenic Sham Shui Po bump into each other outside the Golden Computer Centre.

Here is the transcript in Yale Romanization, traditional Chinese and English translation.

A: Hòh Sàang, jóusàhn.
B: Léih Táai, jóusàhn.
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This is Unit 6 of the Money Module in our Mandarin Chinese Video Lessons Series.

DIALOGUE 1

1. A: 请问，你们这里可以换美金吗？
Qĭngwèn, nĭmen zhèli kéyi huàn Měijīn ma?
Excuse me, can I change U.S. dollars here?
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This is Unit 5 of the Money Module in our Learn Mandarin Chinese Video Series. Sound files were extracted from the Foreign Service Institute’s (FSI) Standard Mandarin Chinese.

Transcript of video in Hanyu Pinyin, Simplified Chinese characters, and English translation

DIALOGUE 1

A: 麻烦你，我这儿有一张十块的。
máfán nǐ, wǒ zhèr yǒu yīzhāng shíkuài de.
Sorry to bother you, I have a ten here.

请你给我换换
qǐng nǐ gěi wǒ huànhuan.
Please change it for me. Read the rest of this entry »

 Unit 5: Play in Popup | Download