Learn how to speak about your nationality
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Nicole: 大家好 (daai6 gaa1 hou2), this is Nicole. |
| Matt: Matt here and welcome to part 3 of our Introductory series at CantoneseClass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Cantonese. |
| Nicole: In the previous lesson, we covered self introductions and introduced you to several powerful tools to help you perfect your pronunciation and get you speaking right away. |
| Matt: In this lesson, we are going to introduce several more powerful tools that will speed up the learning process for you and make things stick. |
| Nicole: With this lesson and the new tools we cover, we are going to show you how to rapidly master and retain vocabulary and key phrases. |
| Matt: A rich vocabulary is one of the keys to fluency and we developed the powerful system to make this process fast and fun. It starts with the breakdown approach used in audio lessons and continues with the following tools developed specifically by our team of linguists and technicians to help you learn vocabulary fast. |
| Nicole: So as you already know, first we introduce and break down the vocabulary in the audio lesson and make sure you can understand it and say it. Next, see the vocabulary and key phrases in the lesson notes. |
| Matt: Then you see the words and hear the pronunciation in the same location. On the site, we have a vocabulary list for each lesson that includes the audio file so you can hear while you see each word. Hear the word again and again while seeing the definition. |
| Nicole: We also have a solution for difficult words. |
| Matt: That’s right. You can save any word to your own word bank which lets you see and hear it any time. |
| Nicole: Remember the audio lesson you are about to hear is just one part of our system. After listening to this audio lesson, |
| Matt: Visit the site cantoneseclass101.com and sign up for your free life time account. Next, you will experience the power of the tools designed for you to rapidly master vocabulary and key phrases effortlessly all while having fun. |
| Nicole: Use the vocabulary list, your own word bank and the video vocab to master the vocabulary. |
| Matt: By mastering the vocabulary of each lesson, you will be able to engage in conversations fast. We’ve made a system that allows you, the listener to master Cantonese in the fastest and easiest way possible. |
| Nicole: Now as you know, each lesson is based around a practical dialogue. So in this lesson, we will be looking at |
| Matt: A dialogue between two neighbors. |
| Nicole: This conversation takes place at an apartment complex. |
| Matt: All right. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| Nicole: We are going to listen three times. The first time at a natural native speed. |
| Matt: That way, you can get used to Cantonese used in the real world. |
| Nicole: The second time nice and slow so that you can follow and then pick up the words and pronunciations. |
| Matt: And the third time with the translation so that you can fully grasp and understand the conversation. |
| Nicole: Okay so let’s listen in. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| 我係美國人。(ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4.) |
| Matt: Here we are going to go over the conversation again, but we are going to slow it down so that you can catch everything. |
| 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| 我係美國人。(ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4.) |
| Matt: Great. Now this time, we are going to give you the conversation one more time with the English afterwards. |
| Nicole: 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| Matt: Which country are you from? |
| Nicole: 我係美國人。(ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4.) |
| Matt: I am American. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Nicole: This conversation is a really useful conversation. It’s simple but very common. |
| Matt: Yes it can happen the minute you land in Hong Kong airport. |
| Nicole: Sometimes foreigners are shocked by the direct questions Cantonese people will ask them, after they greet in Cantonese 你好 (nei5 hou2) and Cantonese people would get so excited and assume that your Cantonese is perfect. |
| Matt: That’s right. Your new neighbor may on your first meeting hit you with a barrage of questions asking you what’s your age, marital status and why you don’t have children, what your job is, what kind of income you have and what your eating habits are. |
| Nicole: Well it’s important to realize that it’s Cantonese way of showing interest in you. |
| Matt: Well that’s true for sure. Let’s take a look at our dialogue today asking someone’s nationality. |
| Nicole: 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| Matt: “Which country are you from“ or literally ”you are which country people“. |
| Nicole: 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| Matt: Which country are you from? |
| Nicole: 我係美國人。(ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4.) |
| Matt: ”I am American“ or literally ”I am America people.” |
| Nicole: 我係美國人。(ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4.) |
| Matt: “I am American”. As you may have noticed, the sentence pattern is pretty similar and straightforward. |
| Nicole: Yes somebody is some country’s people. That’s the sentence pattern. |
| Matt: And that’s one of the greatest features of Cantonese grammar. A rigid word order. |
| Nicole: Which makes it easier to learn. |
| Matt: That’s true. Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary and key phrases for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: Okay first I will give you the word at natural native speed. |
| Matt: Then I will give you the English. |
| Nicole: Then I will break down the word by syllable. |
| Matt: That way you can catch everything. |
| Nicole: And say it right away. Then I will give you the word one more time at native speed. |
| Matt: Ready? |
| Nicole: Yep. |
| Matt: First word. |
| Nicole: 係 (hai6) |
| Matt: “To be”, “is” or “are”. |
| Nicole: 係 (hai6) |
| Matt: “Is” or “are”. The best thing about this word |
| Nicole: 係 (hai6) |
| Matt: Is that there is only one form of it right no matter if it’s to mean “is” or “it is” or “am”. It’s always going to be |
| Nicole: 係 (hai6) |
| Matt: So “you are” will be |
| Nicole: 你係 (nei5 hai6) |
| Matt: “I am” will be |
| Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) |
| Matt: That’s right and the next word we have is |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1) |
| Matt: “Which”. |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1) |
| Matt: “Which”, and the next one |
| Nicole: 國 (gwok3) |
| Matt: Country. |
| Nicole: 國 (gwok3) |
| Matt: Next word |
| Nicole: 人 (jan4) |
| Matt: People. |
| Nicole: 人 (jan4) |
| Matt: People, and the next one |
| Nicole: 美國 (mei5 gwok3) |
| Matt: America. |
| Nicole: 美國 (mei5 gwok3) |
| Matt: America. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Matt: I noticed there is the ending sound in the question that we didn’t talk about just now. |
| Nicole: Yeah the ah sound. |
| Matt: So let’s hear the whole sentence again. |
| Nicole: 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| Matt: The literal translation is, you are which country people ah |
| Nicole: Yes this ah in the end doesn’t mean anything. It’s a particle that just means what it sounds like but in this case, it’s a pronounced question mark. |
| Matt: But they don’t only exist in questions, do they? |
| Nicole: No they are everywhere like did you have lunch ah, you are here early ah, congratulations ah. Things like that. |
| Matt: But it's okay if we don’t use them since they don’t have actual meanings correct. |
| Nicole: Correct. These particles are basically a sign saying that I am Cantonese. |
| Matt: As if them speaking Cantonese isn’t enough, they have to put the Ah flag up, right? |
| Nicole: On native Cantonese, I know everything about Cantonese. |
| Matt: Something that makes you sound down south or Cantonese. |
| Nicole: Yes. Don’t worry about that for now. Keep listening to our lessons and you will master them in no time. |
| Matt: That’s right. Now can we hear you say this sentence with the ah again? |
| Nicole: Sure, 你係邊國人呀？(nei5 hai6 bin1 gwok3 jan4 aa3?) |
| Matt: “Which country are you from?” And the answer is? |
| Nicole: 我係美國人。(ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4.) |
| Matt: “I am American.” |
| Nicole: Or 我係美國人呀 (ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4 aa3), that makes sense. |
| Matt: You just simply add a |
| Nicole: 呀 (aa3) |
| Matt: At the end. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
| Matt: Now one more time. |
| Nicole: 我係美國人呀 (ngo5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4 aa3) |
| Matt: But what if I am English. |
| Nicole: First the structure of saying one’s nationality is that country plus 人 (jan4) which means “people”. |
| Matt: To say “I am American”, I would start off with my country “America” |
| Nicole: 美國 (mei5 gwok3) |
| Matt: Plus people |
| Nicole: 人 (jan4). 美國人 (mei5 gwok3 jan4). |
| Matt: And if I am English, I would start off with my country England |
| Nicole: 英國 (jing1 gwok3) |
| Matt: And then add people again |
| Nicole: 人 (jan4) |
| Matt: Altogether |
| Nicole: 英國人 (jing1 gwok3 jan4). |
| Matt: And “Canadian” is my country “Canada”... |
| Nicole: 加拿大 (gaa1 naa4 daai6) |
| Matt: Plus people |
| Nicole: 人 (jan4). 加拿大人 (gaa1 naa4 daai6 jan4). |
| Matt: And “Australian” is “Australia”... |
| Nicole: 澳洲 (ou3 zau1) |
| Matt: Plus people |
| Nicole: 人 (jan4). 澳洲人 (ou3 zau1 jan4). |
| Matt: So as you can see, the word order is pretty rigid. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
| Matt: And once you know your country and the names of some other countries in Cantonese, it’s easy to recognize where people are from. You will see more examples of this in our lesson notes. |
| Nicole: Yes with Romanization to make it easier to pronounce. |
| Matt: A great way to practice these words is to review the phrases with the line by line audio tool on our website. |
| Nicole: And you grasp the pronunciation in no time. |
| Matt: Then grab the review track so you can keep the phrase fresh in your mind while listening anywhere and anytime. |
| Nicole: Once you think you’ve mastered the phrase or got the hang of it, |
| Matt: You want to test yourself with the flashcards just to make sure. Quizzing yourself is one of the most well known ways to make things stick. |
| Nicole: There we have questions focusing on grammar and vocabulary so you can reinforce everything in the lesson quickly and easily. |
Outro |
| Matt: All right so Nicole, is there anything else we have to say? |
| Nicole: Well all the words will also appear in the lesson notes, vocabulary list, video vocabulary and review track. |
| Matt: Visit cantoneseclass101.com and see how easy it is to master words when you see and hear them in our system. You can also hear them in our audio lessons, see them on our site and on your iClass as well as in the lesson notes. |
| Nicole: Then see and hear them on the vocabulary list. |
| Matt: Finally, you will want to take them with you in video and audio format with video vocab and the review track. |
| Nicole: The same review track I mentioned before right? |
| Matt: Yes this audio file is really useful. With our system, we make learning the new language fun and easy. |
| Nicole: And above all, with our system progress is fast. |
| Matt: Over these three introduction lessons, we introduced you to our powerful language learning system and how it will help you learn Cantonese quickly in a fun environment. |
| Nicole: We introduced you to some essential conversations for people new to Cantonese and to introduce the powerful tools and their benefits. |
| Matt: But at cantoneseclass101.com, we have all level types – but at cantoneseclass101.com, we have all different kinds of levels from the absolute beginner all the way to the advanced. Now that you are familiar with our system, please feel free to sample all of our levels. |
| Nicole: In fact, we have a fast and simple way for you to get a sample lesson of all the levels we have. |
| Matt: The sample feed available at cantoneseclass101.com is an easy to use web 2.0 technology that allows you to download all of the sample audio lessons of each type and all of the accompanying material. |
| Nicole: That’s right. The lesson notes review track, conversation only track |
| Matt: Which is just the key conversation. So you can listen to the key components again and again. You can add the conversation only track and review track to your Mp3 player, iClass et cetera to practice it again and again. |
| Nicole: The video vocabulary and more. |
| Matt: All through iTunes which is one click of a button. |
| Nicole: This is our gift to you just for visiting cantoneseclass101.com and signing up for a free life time account. |
| Matt: Also if you have any questions on how to use certain words or if you’d like to share some feedback with us, just stop by the site and leave us a comment. |
| Nicole: We, the teachers here at cantoneseclass101.com are really quick to respond. |
| Matt: That’s right, cantoneseclass101.com is a great place to interact with other students and teachers as well as other people that are interested in similar things but it’s also a great place to interact with the entire cantoneseclass101.com staff. |
| Nicole: Thank you again for joining us for this introduction series. Remember to stop by cantoneseclass101.com and leave us a comment. |
| Matt: Oh and before we say bye, remember at the end of this audio lesson, the conversation is there again for you to reinforce everything that you just learned. |
| Nicole: Okay. So with everyone at cantoneseclass101.com |
| Matt: Bye-bye. |
| Nicole: Bye. |
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