3 ms·

My girlfriend’s family strictly speaks Cantonese and I known nothing about it. I was just talking with a friend in a similar situation who lamented the lack of

by lumb63 3y ago

My girlfriend’s family strictly speaks Cantonese and I known nothing about it. I was just talking with a friend in a similar situation who lamented the lack of resources for Cantonese. This is awesome! Does anyone have any other hidden-gem Cantonese learning resources?

keyboard_smash 3y ago
Unaffiliated with this group, but there are a bunch of graded readers, romanized with Jyutping, freely available, and very high quality![1] If you’d prefer physical books, this online store imports quite a few from Hong Kong.[2] A dictionary program for Windows/Mac/Linux that I make [3], and another for mobile that I don’t make.[4] Finally, a list of other good resources from Cantonese Alliance.[5] [1] https://hambaanglaang.hk/ https://hambaanglaang.hk/ [2] https://kozzi.ca/ https://kozzi.ca/ [3] https://jyutdictionary.com/ https://jyutdictionary.com/ [4] https://www.pleco.com/ https://www.pleco.com/ [5] https://cantonese-alliance.github.io/language.html https://cantonese-alliance.github.io/language.html
Quiark 3y ago
This may look like an ad but I was satisfied with Cantonese101 app (except for the stupid fact that flashcards are not in mobile app, only in the (responsive) web based app). I went through 2 "levels" but I failed to start using the language on a daily basis which is why I still don't really know it (my fault).
hnfong 3y ago
Here's a side project of mine: https://cantowords.com/ https://cantowords.com/ It's an offshoot of https://words.hk https://words.hk (which has a Chinese interface). AFAIK we're the only modern Cantonese-Cantonese and Cantonese-English dictionary that is both comprehensive (50k+ entries) and word (詞) focused (i.e. not only explaining meaning of characters). It's a huge undertaking, we've been on this for almost 10 years, and probably almost half-way done. FWIW words.hk has quite a bit of traffic (from native/near-native speakers presumably) due to being well indexed by Google, but cantowords.com is relatively new and could benefit from more attention :) PS: some of our content has made way to Cantonese dictionary apps as mentioned in sibling post(s), but the web site contains the most up to date content (which does get updated on a day to day basis as editing work proceeds)
- larrysalibra 3y ago
  Cool! I made an effort to study Cantonese about 10 years ago and wish I'd come across these sites! At the time, I heavily relied on another great Cantonese dictionary/resource site: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/ http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/ In addition to the Jyutping Cantonese pronunciation, it also shows corresponding Hanyu pinyin pronunciation for Mandarin. There are also number of learning resources on the site. I love how you can mouseover any character to get a pop up to learn more about the character - it's meaning as a single character, pronunciation, etc.
orm 3y ago
If you have basic Mandarin knowledge, you could try Duolingo's Cantonese course for Mandarin speakers. I think it is helpful to get familiar with how words are pronounced and what expressions people use in vernacular Cantonese so far. As with the Mandarin course, there is little explanation, you kind of have to complement it eg with some drilling for tones.

by lumb63 3y ago

keyboard_smash 3y ago

Unaffiliated with this group, but there are a bunch of graded readers, romanized with Jyutping, freely available, and very high quality![1] If you’d prefer physical books, this online store imports quite a few from Hong Kong.[2] A dictionary program for Windows/Mac/Linux that I make [3], and another for mobile that I don’t make.[4] Finally, a list of other good resources from Cantonese Alliance.[5] [1] https://hambaanglaang.hk/ https://hambaanglaang.hk/ [2] https://kozzi.ca/ https://kozzi.ca/ [3] https://jyutdictionary.com/ https://jyutdictionary.com/ [4] https://www.pleco.com/ https://www.pleco.com/ [5] https://cantonese-alliance.github.io/language.html https://cantonese-alliance.github.io/language.html

Quiark 3y ago

This may look like an ad but I was satisfied with Cantonese101 app (except for the stupid fact that flashcards are not in mobile app, only in the (responsive) web based app). I went through 2 "levels" but I failed to start using the language on a daily basis which is why I still don't really know it (my fault).

hnfong 3y ago

Here's a side project of mine: https://cantowords.com/ https://cantowords.com/ It's an offshoot of https://words.hk https://words.hk (which has a Chinese interface). AFAIK we're the only modern Cantonese-Cantonese and Cantonese-English dictionary that is both comprehensive (50k+ entries) and word (詞) focused (i.e. not only explaining meaning of characters). It's a huge undertaking, we've been on this for almost 10 years, and probably almost half-way done. FWIW words.hk has quite a bit of traffic (from native/near-native speakers presumably) due to being well indexed by Google, but cantowords.com is relatively new and could benefit from more attention :) PS: some of our content has made way to Cantonese dictionary apps as mentioned in sibling post(s), but the web site contains the most up to date content (which does get updated on a day to day basis as editing work proceeds)

larrysalibra 3y ago
Cool! I made an effort to study Cantonese about 10 years ago and wish I'd come across these sites! At the time, I heavily relied on another great Cantonese dictionary/resource site: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/ http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/ In addition to the Jyutping Cantonese pronunciation, it also shows corresponding Hanyu pinyin pronunciation for Mandarin. There are also number of learning resources on the site. I love how you can mouseover any character to get a pop up to learn more about the character - it's meaning as a single character, pronunciation, etc.

orm 3y ago

If you have basic Mandarin knowledge, you could try Duolingo's Cantonese course for Mandarin speakers. I think it is helpful to get familiar with how words are pronounced and what expressions people use in vernacular Cantonese so far. As with the Mandarin course, there is little explanation, you kind of have to complement it eg with some drilling for tones.