Learn how to greet someone and introduce yourself, formally and informally
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Nicole: 大家好! (daai6 gaa1 hou2) |
| Matt: Hello Matt here and welcome back to cantoneseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Cantonese. I am of course joined by the wonderful |
| Nicole: Nicole. Hello everyone. Great to have you back. |
| Matt: This lesson is part 2 of our Introduction series on CantoneseClass101.com. |
| Nicole: Now please don’t forget. Our lessons are just part of our very powerful language learning system. |
| Matt: In part 1, we introduced our system and explained how you can use it to learn Cantonese at your own pace. We also showed you some of our powerful tools as well. Today we are going to get into some real Cantonese. |
| Nicole: Right with the lesson on how to introduce yourself. |
| Matt: That’s right, perfect. Don’t think it will work, well we are going to make it work. We are going to teach you how to make a first impression that wows by combining four parts of our system. |
| Nicole: We mean really, really impress. |
| Matt: First we are going to introduce you to the phrases and break them down in this audio lesson. |
| Nicole: Next, we are going to show you how to use four powerful tools from our system to remember this introduction. |
| Matt: So if you haven’t done so already, go to cantoneseclass101.com and sign up for a free life time account. You are going to need the free account to access the tools we are going to use. |
| Nicole: Because to master this lesson, you are going to need this lesson note of course. |
| Matt: And several other useful tools as well. The line by line audio, voice recording tool and the review track from the site. |
| Nicole: Okay let’s get into the lesson, shall we? |
| Matt: Yeah let’s do just that. What is the setting of this conversation Nicole? |
| Nicole: This conversation is between two people meeting for the first time. |
| Matt: So they are going to be introducing themselves and where is this conversation taking place? |
| Nicole: This conversation takes place at a café. |
| Matt: And the conversation is between a man and a woman who are meeting randomly. |
| Nicole: And the speakers are strangers, so they are speaking quite formally. |
| Matt: This is a dialogue that you can use whenever you meet somebody for the first time be it man or woman. All right, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 你好。(nei5 hou2.) |
| 你好。你叫咩名？ (nei5 hou2. nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| 我叫成龍。(ngo5 giu3 sing4 lung4.) |
| 好高興認識你。(hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5.) |
| Matt: One more time, but a little bit slower. |
| 你好。(nei5 hou2.) |
| 你好。你叫咩名？ (nei5 hou2. nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| 我叫成龍。(ngo5 giu3 sing4 lung4.) |
| 好高興認識你。(hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5.) |
| Matt: Great. Now this time, we are going to give you the conversation one more time with the English afterwards. |
| Nicole: 你好。(nei5 hou2.) |
| Matt: Hello. |
| Nicole: 你好。(nei5 hou2.) |
| Matt: Hello. |
| Nicole: 你叫咩名？ (nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| Matt: What is your name? |
| Nicole: 我叫成龍。(ngo5 giu3 sing4 lung4.) |
| Matt: I am called Jackie Chan. |
| Nicole: 好高興認識你。(hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5.) |
| Matt: Very nice to meet you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: Okay Nicole, let’s talk a little bit about the etiquette when introducing yourself. |
| Nicole: Great suggestion. When Cantonese speakers meet on formal occasion, they shake hands. |
| Matt: Well what about informal occasions. Do they hug, kiss, high five? |
| Nicole: No Cantonese is not a big fan of body contact. When I meet friends, I would probably say hi and keep my hands in my pocket. |
| Matt: Well, let’s not scare away all of our learners now. Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this lesson. What do we have first? |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Nicole: 你好。(nei5 hou2.) |
| Matt: Which literally means, you good? Can you break that down a little bit for us? |
| Nicole: 你 (nei5) |
| Matt: You. |
| Nicole: 好 (hou2) |
| Matt: Good. And this is a polite way to say “hello”. What’s the impolite way Nicole? |
| Nicole: Not saying anything. |
| Matt: That’s the one you gave to me the first time I saw you. That’s easy to learn and remember. |
| Nicole: Yep. |
| Matt: What’s the proper response to you good? |
| Nicole: Well you can simply repeat a greeting 你好。(nei5 hou2.) |
| Matt: So when you hear that, you just say back exactly what you heard. |
| Nicole: Exactly. |
| Matt: Sounds easy. What do we have next? |
| Nicole: 你叫咩名？ (nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| Matt: “What’s your name” or literally “you call what name?” |
| Nicole: 你叫咩名？ (nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| Matt: Now Nicole, let’s break that down for our listeners and start with the first part. The first part of that is |
| Nicole: 你 (nei5) |
| Matt: “You” and immediately after that, it is |
| Nicole: 叫 (giu3) |
| Matt: “Call” or “to call” and in this case, “to be called”. As we mentioned in the previous lesson, Cantonese doesn’t conjugate verbs no matter if it’s “call” or “to be called” or “called”. It’s still |
| Nicole: 叫 (giu3) |
| Matt: Right. Next we have |
| Nicole: 咩 (me1) |
| Matt: What. Now this is a funny sound. |
| Nicole: Well I agree. 咩 (me1) but that makes it easier to remember, right? 咩 (me1), meaning “what”. |
| Matt: And it’s different from the last lesson right? |
| Nicole: Correct. Last lesson, we have 食乜 (sik6 mat1) “to eat what”. So the last sound is 乜 (mat1) meaning “what”. |
| Matt: Now what’s the difference there? Let’s hear them both together. |
| Nicole: Okay, 乜 (mat1) from the first lesson; 咩 (me1) from this lesson. |
| Matt: What’s the difference? |
| Nicole: 咩 (me1) is actually a contraction of two words. 乜 (mat1) and 嘢 (je5). 乜嘢 (mat1 je5) -> 咩 (me1). It means “what things”. So 乜 (mat1) and 咩 (me1) are quite similar but 咩 (me1) is more general and referred to both human and things while 乜 (mat1) is more often used for things. |
| Matt: So if I use 乜 (mat1) in asking someone’s name, it would be impolite right? |
| Nicole: 你叫乜名？ (nei5 giu3 mat1 meng2?) Totally rude. |
| Matt: All right. So our listeners definitely need to watch out. This is a sentence that even Cantonese regard as rude. |
| Nicole: Hey we are polite. |
| Matt: That’s right polite. You are just direct. So what’s the last word of the sentence then? |
| Nicole: 名 (meng2) |
| Matt: Which means name. |
| Nicole: 名 (meng2) |
| Matt: Name. So the whole sentence is you call what name. |
| Nicole: 你叫咩名？ (nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| Matt: One more time. |
| Nicole: 你叫咩名？ (nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Matt: Great. As a grammar part in our lesson, great. As the grammar part in our last lesson says, the word order in Cantonese is rigid. Statements and questions both share the same pattern. |
| Nicole: Which makes it easier to learn. 我叫成龍 (ngo5 giu3 sing4 lung4) |
| Matt: Or my name is 成龍 (sing4 lung4) Jackie Chan, or literally “I’m called 成龍 (sing4 lung4)” |
| Nicole: See, the answer is the same word order as the questions 你叫咩名？ (nei5 giu3 me1 meng2) |
| Matt: So Jackie Chan’s Cantonese name is |
| Nicole: 成龍 (sing4 lung4). Both of the sounds use the lowest tone, 成龍 (sing4 lung4). |
| Matt: Ah so it sounds cool. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| Matt: Now why would anyone not recognize Jackie Chan in the Cantonese world? |
| Nicole: Well it could be some really, really young girl born after 2000. |
| Matt: So what would she say after Jackie Chan introduces himself? |
| Nicole: 好高興認識你 (hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5) “Very nice to meet you”. |
| Matt: But Jackie Chan wouldn’t feel the same without reply. |
| Nicole: I agree 好高興認識你 (hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5) |
| Matt: Very nice to meet you. Can you break that phrase down for us? |
| Nicole: Sure 好 (hou2) |
| Matt: Or “good” and in this case, “very”. |
| Nicole: 高興 (gou1 hing3) |
| Matt: “Happy”. |
| Nicole: 認識 (jing6 sik1) |
| Matt: “To meet” or “know”. |
| Nicole: 你 (nei5) |
| Matt: “You”. |
| Nicole: So the whole sentence 好高興認識你 (hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5) |
| Matt: Great and if our listeners wanted to introduce themselves, they can just follow this pattern and simply replace the name. So I can say, my name is Matt. |
| Nicole: 我叫Matt (ngo5 giu3 Matt) |
| Matt: Or my name is Nicole. |
| Nicole: 我Nicole (ngo5 giu3 Nicole) |
| Matt: Great job. |
| Nicole: Thanks. I am a native Cantonese speaker. |
| Matt: Okay. Now lastly we have |
| Nicole: 好高興認識你 (hou2 gou1 hing3 jing6 sik1 nei5) |
| Matt: Very nice to meet you. |
Outro |
| Nicole: Now remember those other tools that we were talking about? |
| Matt: The line by line audio, voice recording tool and the review track. |
| Nicole: Now we are going to see why they are so powerful. Let’s start with the line by line audio. |
| Matt: Which is one of our most powerful tools for improving pronunciation fast. It gives us each line of the conversation with one click of a button. So you can listen to any of the phrases as many times as you need to. |
| Nicole: You can hear us again and again. |
| Matt: That’s right. With our line by line audio feature, you have the ability to rapidly improve your listening comprehension. Listen to the native Cantonese speakers in bite size sentences and phrases so you can perfect every single aspect of your Cantonese listening comprehension. Then you can model after them. |
| Nicole: Model after them? |
| Matt: That’s right. You repeat what you hear. |
| Nicole: So listen to us and then repeat to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Matt: Then it’s time to test your pronunciation with the voice recording tool. This tool lets you record your voice right in your own browser. All you need is a microphone. |
| Nicole: Even better, it’s on the same page. |
| Matt: You can listen to the native Cantonese speaker and model them and then record your voice. That way, you can compare it side by side to the native Cantonese speaker. This is a perfect way to compare your pronunciation with the native Cantonese speakers. |
| Nicole: You can keep practicing and recording your voice. Listen and record, listen and record. |
| Matt: That’s right. You can keep recording until you refine your pitch and intonation, build your fluency and perfect your pronunciation. |
| Nicole: Well I actually had fun recording my voice the first time. |
| Matt: Yeah that’s because you are a superstar. You hear a new voice for the first time, it is interesting but hearing yourself speaking another language is real. It’s pretty fun. |
| Nicole: It’s also powerful, very powerful. |
| Matt: We mentioned one more tool right? |
| Nicole: Yep and that is the review track. |
| Matt: The review track is a short 1 to 2 minute audio file with the key vocabulary and phrases from each lesson. Each word or phrase is followed by a short pause giving you time to repeat the words aloud. Practicing aloud with the proper pronunciation is one of the keys to fast fluency. |
| Nicole: With these three tools, you will be speaking the words and phrases from each lesson fast. |
| Matt: To get these tools and see many more, visit us at cantoneseclass101.com to get your free life time account and try the powerful tools that were mentioned in this lesson. |
| Nicole: And the listeners also have another reason to visit our site. |
| Matt: Oh yeah what’s that? |
| Nicole: Well if you are interested in how you say your name in Cantonese, just stop by cantoneseclass101.com and leave us a comment. |
| Matt: That’s a great idea and we can definitely help you there. Stop by and we will give you your name in Cantonese. |
| Nicole: Our community is one of the strongest communities on Cantonese. |
| Matt: If you have any language questions, our teachers are always on the board answering your questions and helping everyone practice their Cantonese. Also we have a forum where you can talk about anything Cantonese and find other people that have similar interests. Cantonese movies, Cantonese music, Cantonese food. |
| Nicole: Cantonese history, arts et cetera, et cetera. |
| Matt: So if you are interested in anything related to Cantonese, remember to stop by our forums. Just because you are studying alone doesn’t mean that you are alone. Our forum is one of the top destinations on the internet to find and talk about what you like about Cantonese. So I guess we will see our listeners at cantoneseclass101.com |
| Nicole: Stop by and get your free lifetime account today. See you there. |
| Matt: Now here is the short conversation one more time. Bye. |
| Nicole: Bye. |
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