Cantonese 101 for Complete Beginners

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Hi, Welcome to Cantonese 101

This course is designed for completely new Cantonese beginners who want to take a glimpse into the language as well as those who have limited knowledge of Cantonese and would like to understand more about its usage and learn new vocabularies and phrases.

Although mastering Cantonese can be a daunting task for beginners, it can be achieved through dissecting the language and learning it through a structural and pragmatic way so that it can be easily absorbed and enjoyable to learn.

That is the main goal of this training course.

As a native Cantonese speaker, I will walk you through each lesson and pronounce each Cantonese word where you can repeat after me or pause whenever necessary.

The most important way to progress in any language is through repetition, practice, and perseverance. So don’t hesitate to repeat and review the course, then take it for a spin and practice with other Cantonese speakers.

What’s Included In This Course (Scope)

This training course consists of nine lessons covering basic Cantonese words that are widely spoken within everyday conversations.

These lessons include:

              - Counting System

              - Colors

              - Pronouns

              - Directional Words

              - People

              - Time

              - Questions

              - Counter Words

              - Verbs

In each lesson, you will find the English translation; followed by the Chinese characters and the pronunciation that closely resembles English (romanization).

The reason why I chose these nine lessons to start off for Cantonese beginners is because each lesson reflects a basic structure. These structures will help you better master the Cantonese system and allow you to build upon what you learned.

It is important to note that when learning Cantonese from an English speaking perspective, you should never translate word for word. Instead, try learning it as if you were a baby trying to grasp the language for the first time.

The English and the pronunciation are only there to guide you, but you must absorb Cantonese with a clear and open mind. This is important because it will stop you from over analyzing why certain word is spoken differently than from that of your own language.

Why My Approach Could Work For You

Cantonese consists of six intonations. Although these intonations are important as different tones can change the meaning of the word, mastering it while learning new basic vocabularies can be overwhelming.

Therefore, I have designed this course to leave out the intonations so that you can focus on learning new Cantonese vocabularies without being discouraged by the added complexity of the intonations.

Since most people fail to master pronouncing Cantonese correctly anyway through learning the intonations first, this training will provide an easier approach to remove the roadblock and allow you to dive in head on.

Similar to learning how to swim, this course will essentially allow you to test the water, get comfortable with it, and then refine your skills through practice.

Therefore I recommend learning the six intonations only after you feel comfortable enough with the language, then you can use intonations to sharpen your pronunciation.

This approach has worked for many students that I teach and they find this method to be less overwhelming.

After all, babies never learned the intonations before speaking Cantonese. What helped them was through listening, so that is basically the same approach here.

By visualizing the English meaning and Cantonese words along with the romanization, you may find this learning approach to be less overwhelming and more enjoyable.

Good luck and let’s get started!

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• Introduction to Cantonese 101
• What’s Included In This Training (Scope)
• Why My Approach Could Work For You
• Introduction: Numbers
• Two Digit Numbers
• Big Numbers
• Review: Numbers
• Introduction: Colors
• Light And Dark Colors
• Color Phrases
• Review: Colors
• Introduction: Pronouns
• Pronouns
• Review: Pronouns
• Introduction: Directional Words
• Directional Words - Part 1
• Directional Words - Part 2
• Review: Directional Words
• Introduction: People
• Family Member
• Addressing Other People
• Review: People
• Introduction: Time
• How to Tell Time
• Asking the Time
• Review: Time
• Introduction: "Is It?"
• Questions
• Review: Questions
• Introduction: Counter Words
• How To Use Counter Words
• Review: Counter Words
• Introduction: Verbs
• Need Vs Want
• Other Verbs
• Verb "To Be"
• Conclusion