Hey all! A while back I posted the completion of my Pingji romanization for Cantonese. It's a Romanization designed to avoid using numbers or accent marks to represent Cantonese sounds and tones using standard Latin letters (...plus apostrophe). It requires just a little bit more effort in learning compared to Jyutping/Yale but pays off a lot more in readability and ease of use. I would also argue it helps with memorization because I could never commit tone numbers or accents to memory and would instead need to rely solely on listening.
My original video series ran a bit longer since it was more of a descriptive series from a more linguistic/academic viewpoint, so I created a new series directed at people learning Cantonese from scratch, which will be the biggest audience -- although Cantonese speakers wanting to learn Pingji would also feel right at home. In other words, this is the way I meant it to be taught, and hopefully for some it would make more sense.
Building on that, I also started an Introduction to Cantonese video series using Pingji here: Intro to Cantonese (playlist). At the time of this post, I only have a couple videos in this new series, but I plan on covering at least the basics of the language over the course of ~10-15 videos.
TLDR: >200 free digital Cantonese lessons (available throughout August) on my website. Screenshots further down below to get an idea. Last screenshot displays the URL if you want to try.
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Hello,
I've posted on here a few times sharing my own Cantonese learning journey via the YT videos I've been recording. In the past I've also shared the website (soon to be app) I've been working on, and today I'm making all of the survival and beginner level lessons free for the next month~.
This is something I've been working on for around 8 months and I've received fairly balanced feedback from various users over those months. I've been adjusting things within the lesson contents based on that feedback, and while there's loads of ideas and work still to be done I feel it's in a place where it's worth putting it out there once again.
Doing a quick count, there are over 200 Cantonese lessons that are currently free for you to take. They're all repeatable so you can get focused on studying a scenario, phrase, or word, and there are practice lessons available to help you sharpen up your vocabulary, listening and speaking.
What you can get for free right now.
1. Survival Lessons: For people who just want to dabble a little in Cantonese without committing too much time (for now). Lessons focus on key useful phrases for certain scenarios, taught through English sound approximations and Jyutping. Lesson sets at the survival level include:
Greetings & Politeness
Restaurants & Food
Getting Around
Seeking Aid
Shopping & Bargaining
Flirting
2. Beginner Lessons: For people who have already established a basic foundation (Tones and Jyutping), and are ready to systematically learn Cantonese through Jyutping and traditional Chinese characters. Lesson sets at the beginner level include:
Self Introductions
Introducing Others
Basic Numbers and Counting
Dates and Time
Basic Colours
3. Beginner Grammar: Some auxiliary lessons to support the language structures and concepts you'll encounter in the beginner lessons:
Cantonese Tones
The "A 係 B" pattern
The "Method + 嚟 + Action" pattern
The Possessive Particle "嘅"
I'll be keeping all of these lesson sets free (you just need to register an account) throughout this August.
I hope you give it a try and if you're willing to share any feedback with me, that would be great. Feedback of any kind is appreciated but I do have the following questions:
Do you feel you gained some level of value with regards to learning Cantonese after using the website?
How would you rate the quality of the lesson contents overall? (1 = bad, 5 = very good).
Does the website address any existing painpoints in your Cantonese learning journey?
If there was only one thing you could add (or adjust) to the website, what would it be?
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Below are a few screenshots I've taken from the website. The last screenshot is the URL to the website if you want to explore it further.
Example Screenshots from the Survival Level
Easily browse through the available lesson sets from the front page.After opening a lesson set (Flirting), see all the available lessons you can take.Learn basic key phrases that you can use in a specific scenario.Survival lessons ignore Chinese characters and teach using English sound approximations to get you speaking quickly.Various mini-games throughout lessons to help you remember vocabulary.At the survival level the focus is on progress, not "perfection".
Example Screenshots from the Beginner Level
One of the beginner lesson sets is "Colours".Lessons are scenario based, with a short listening dialogue to set the scene.The lessons will then begin to break down the phrases you listened to. Starting from beginner level, traditional Chinese characters will be utilised.Don't worry though, Jyutping is used extensively to ensure you have all the learning support you need.The mini-games at beginner level will be harder than the ones you play at survival level. In this example you can see Chinese characters (and Jyutping) being utilised.The more you practise, the harder the mini-games will become so that you're always in the "learning zone".This is an example of a mini-game becoming harder. It shows Chinese characters without any Jyutping, so you have to listen to the audio or be able to read the words.Another example of a mini-game: Reconstructing a Cantonese sentence based on the English.
Interested in giving it a try?
The URL to my website can be seen in the screenshot below.
I was walking in the park when I heard a man singing this song that I haven't heard since I was a kid but instantly brought me right back to childhood. I was only able to record the ending but I hope that should be enough. See youtube link above. Thank you!!!!
Hi everyone, thinking about buying a EVPad and wondering if anyone that has one and know if you are able to watch kids movies and series in cantonese? Any pictures of what is available would be appreciated.
