Learn the basics of Cantonese
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Matt: Hi welcome to CantoneseClass101.com, the fastest, easiest and the most fun way to learn Cantonese. My name is Matt and I am joined by |
| Nicole: 大家好 (daai6 gaa1 hou2), I am Nicole and we are about to introduce you to a new fun way to learn Cantonese. |
| Matt: The core of this new approach is language learning material presented in radio talk show format which is entertaining while at the same time educational. |
| Nicole: Not only will you have fun learning Cantonese, but we will have you speaking Cantonese from the very first lesson. |
| Matt: With our revolutionary breakdown approach, even if you are completely new to Cantonese, you will be able to speak some Cantonese by the end of the very first lesson. |
| Nicole: Yeah each lesson is hosted by one native Cantonese speaker, that’s me and one native English speaking teacher, that’s Matt. |
| Matt: The dialogues are all recorded by professional voice actors who are of course native Cantonese speakers. |
| Nicole: The lessons center around current practical dialogues that you will hear in Hong Kong or wherever Cantonese is spoken every day. |
| Matt: In addition to the dialogue, we break down the pronunciation of vocabulary words and phrases so you can understand them and say them right away. |
| Nicole: We also cover cultural insight experiences about living and traveling in the Cantonese world and tips on using Cantonese you just won’t find in a textbook. |
| Matt: Now the audio lesson you are about to listen to is just one part of our powerful system as the podcasts were designed to be used together with accompanying material on our site cantoneseclass101.com. |
| Nicole: On our site, you will find bonus audio tracks, lesson notes, quizzes and other learning tools for each and every lesson. |
| Matt: There you can sign up for a free lifetime account and try all of the powerful tools to get you speaking right away and ensure you continue on with your studies. |
| Nicole: So Matt, what do you think? Let’s show them how it works. |
| Matt: All right that sounds like a good idea Nicole. In this lesson, we are going to go over some simple phrases used while ordering food. |
| Nicole: And this is a fast and fun lesson that’s useful in lots of situations. |
| Matt: To see the phrases that we are going to cover today, make sure to stop by cantoneseclass101.com and get your free account. This way, you can view the lesson notes while or after you listen. |
| Nicole: And for this lesson, the lesson notes have a transcript of key phrases and vocabulary. |
| Matt: Or if you are listening on your iPod, click the center button or touch the screen twice. Doing so will enable you to see the key phrases. So Nicole, where are we taking the listeners today? |
| Nicole: Well in this lesson, we are going to take them to the center of the Cantonese world, Hong Kong. Now it’s 11 AM and we are on our way to grab some typical Cantonese lunch [*] |
| Matt: Now that’s Cantonese fried rice. Great, sounds like an interesting lesson and if you want to know more about Cantonese fried rice, take a look at our lesson notes. |
| Nicole: That’s right. There we have a cultural insights section that gives you a detailed explanation of many topics we cover in the audio lesson and in the lesson notes for this lesson; there is a write up on Cantonese perpetual love for rice. |
| Matt: All right, now I am really excited. So let’s get back to the lesson. We are in a Cantonese restaurant and the smell of Cantonese food is unbelievable but also so is the noise. |
| Nicole: So when you order, make sure you are loud enough to get the waitstaff’s attention. |
| Matt: Sometimes they are just too busy to come to your table and take your order. You just need to shout to them. |
| Nicole: That usually happens in a typical Hong Kong restaurants 茶餐廳 (caa4 caan1 teng1) a type of open air food store or 大排檔 (daai6 paai4 dong3), but if you don’t catch the words I said, don’t worry. You are sure to hear me say them so many, many times that you get sick of them. |
| Matt: You will also find it an interesting dining culture as you learn along with us here at CantoneseClass101.com. Ordering in a shouting manner can be a lot of fun. |
| Nicole: Yeah. Matt it’s definitely yes but now let’s take a listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 食乜？(sik6 mat1) |
| 食飯。(sik6 faan6.) |
| 炒飯？(caau2 faan6) |
| 好。 (hou2.) |
| Matt: One more time but little bit slower. |
| 食乜？(sik6 mat1) |
| 食飯。(sik6 faan6.) |
| 炒飯？(caau2 faan6) |
| 好。 (hou2.) |
| Nicole: One more time with the English. |
| Nicole: 食乜？(sik6 mat1) |
| Matt: Eat what? |
| Nicole: 食飯。(sik6 faan6.) |
| Matt: Eat rice. |
| Nicole: 炒飯？ (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: Fried rice? |
| Nicole: 好。 (hou2.) |
| Matt: Good. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: Now the pronunciation is very important so you can start speaking just like Nicole here instantly. So Nicole, let’s take a look at that key phrase of fried rice and for those of you listening, don’t forget to repeat after Nicole. All right, here we go. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: Fried rice. One more time, slowly. |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: And one more time fast. |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: Fried rice. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
| Matt: All right. I think we got the pronunciation perfected and just like that, when we give essential vocabulary words or phrases in our lessons, we always break it down. |
| Nicole: One time fast for you to hear at a natural speed. |
| Matt: And one time slow so you can fully grasp the pronunciation. |
| Nicole: And one more time fast so that you can repeat it at full speed and with the translation. |
| Matt: If you do this, you will be speaking like a Cantonese speaker with our system in no time. |
| Nicole: It will also help you memorize the words and master the pronunciation. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Matt: All right. So now that we got the pronunciation perfected, we have our lesson notes and we know exactly when and where to use these phrases. Nicole, let’s break up that phrase piece by piece to help us understand just a little bit better. What’s the first part? |
| Nicole: 炒 (caau2) |
| Matt: Which is the verb to fry. |
| Nicole: But because Cantonese don’t conjugate verbs. So to fry, frying and fried as in the fried rice are all the same. |
| Matt: Which sounds like |
| Nicole: 炒 (caau2) |
| Matt: Fried. |
| Nicole: 炒 (caau2) |
| Matt: Right. Simple and direct. And next we have, |
| Nicole: 飯 (faan6) |
| Matt: Rice. Can you repeat that for us one more time? |
| Nicole: 飯 (faan6) |
| Matt: Rice. |
| Nicole: 飯 (faan6) |
| Matt: Rice. Great, now if I wanted to order fried rice in a Cantonese restaurant, what do I say? |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: Just yell it out, fried rice. |
| Nicole: It’s that simple 炒飯 (caau2 faan6). |
| Matt: So it’s not rude at all? |
| Nicole: Well we call it direct. |
| Matt: Sure. Now can you say it one more time for us Nicole in a direct manner? |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6). |
| Matt: Cantonese fried rice is truly delicious. You guys have numerous kinds of it. |
| Nicole: Yeah. Since rice is a staple of Cantonese food and homemade Cantonese dishes are usually served with plain white rice but fried rice is also popular; 炒飯 (caau2 faan6). |
| Matt: Now you guys have brought rice to a whole new level here but in the dialogue, we hear something else before we order. |
| Nicole: 食乜 (sik6 mat1) |
| Matt: Which literally means “eat what” from the wait staff and it’s also not rude. |
| Nicole: No not at all. 食乜 (sik6 mat1). 食乜? (sik6 mat1) |
| Matt: Eat what. Now can you break that down for us Nicole? |
| Nicole: Sure 食 (sik6) is “to eat”, 乜 (mat1) is “what”. So 食乜 (sik6 mat1) together, “what would you like to eat?” |
| Matt: And one more time |
| Nicole: 食乜? (sik6 mat1) |
| Matt: And the answer to that would be |
| Nicole: 食飯 (sik6 faan6) |
| Matt: Or eat rice. |
| Nicole: 食飯 (sik6 faan6) |
| Matt: So this conversation goes really quickly, doesn’t it Nicole? |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| Matt: Eat what, eat rice. |
| Nicole: Well as we mentioned before, 飯 (faan6) is rice. So 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) is fried rice. |
| Matt: So if I wanted to eat fried rice, it would be |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: One more time. |
| Nicole: 炒飯 (caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: Now can we hear the question eat what one more time. |
| Nicole: 食乜？(sik6 mat1) |
| Matt: And the reply, eat fried rice. |
| Nicole: 食炒飯 (sik6 caau2 faan6) |
| Matt: All right. Good. |
| Nicole: 好。 (hou2.) |
| Matt: The last word literally means good but it’s widely used as “yes”. |
| Nicole: Yeah like “right, all right, cool, great”. |
| Matt: 好。 (hou2.) |
| Nicole: 好。 (hou2.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Matt: Right. Nicole, one thing I noticed is that the pitches of all these words are varied and different. |
| Nicole: That’s right because we have six tones in Cantonese, well some say 9 but don’t be scared of. We will cover that in the coming lessons. |
| Matt: For now, you only need to repeat the sounds after our native speaker Nicole. |
| Nicole: Right. I am sure you grasp the tones naturally over time. |
| Matt: So whenever you hear a Cantonese word, make sure you repeat it. |
| Nicole: That’s correct. Listen and repeat, the basic and effective way of learning a language. |
| Matt: And you can always hit the record button to record yourself in our premium learning center and play it back just as easily. |
| Nicole: You’d be amazed by your own pronunciation or not. |
| Matt: Now the voice recording tool helps you to compare your pronunciation to the native speakers. |
| Nicole: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Matt: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. |
| Nicole: All right, before we finish the lesson, I want to give some cultural insight. |
| Matt: Okay well, do all Cantonese eat rice every day? |
| Nicole: Well yes lunch and supper. Well that’s why the phrase 食飯 (sik6 faan6) “to eat rice” is a general term for dinner. |
Outro |
| Matt: That’s great. Thanks for your explanation and thank you listeners for tuning in. Remember to stop by our website |
| Nicole: Cantoneseclass101.com |
| Matt: And sign up for a free lifetime account while you are there. Be sure to pick up the lesson notes for this lesson as well. |
| Nicole: Also you can take a tour of our website. |
| Matt: There you can find the next introduction lesson. |
| Nicole: The introduction lessons explain how to use the site. |
| Matt: So if you are new to Cantonese or cantoneseclass101.com, we recommend you start by listening to all the lessons of the introduction series. |
| Nicole: That really is the best way. |
| Matt: After that, we have a lot more lessons waiting for you. |
| Nicole: But for now, we’d like you to experience our community. |
| Matt: And you can leave a comment on this lesson or any of our other lessons by visiting cantoneseclass101.com. Let us know what you thought of this lesson as your feedback is an important part of our system. |
| Nicole: That’s right. At the site, there is an amazing community of Cantonese students around the world. You ask the questions and you get the answers. |
| Matt: Okay thanks again for listening. Stop by, sign up for your free lifetime account and get the lesson notes as well as leave us a comment. In introduction lesson 2, we are going to introduce you to several more powerful parts of our learning system. So for now, |
| Nicole: Have a good listen of our dialogue, and 拜拜 (bai1 bai3)! |
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