Prerequisites
Little or no prior exposure to Cantonese
Textbook:
Colloquial Cantonese: The Complete Course for Beginners, Routledge, 2010 (2nd edition)
Coordinator
Ms. Yan Huang (yanh@friends-select.org)
Course Descriptions
Beginning Cantonese is a preliminary course for spoken Cantonese. The course provides fundamental aspects of the dialect as experienced in daily life situations and lays the foundation which will enable students to communicate in Cantonese for daily life needs, such as learning
the Yale pronunciation system and tones, making friends, shopping for fruit, hobbies and leisure activities, telling the time, appearance and character, furniture and prices, get around by various means of transport. It is strongly recommended that students continue to Beginning Cantonese II to become conversational.
Sample Text (Entry):
Néih hóu, ngóh haih Carmen.
Néih hóu, Carmen. Ngóh haih Richard. Carmen, néih haih bīndouh yàhn a?
Ngóh haih Hēunggóng yàhn a.
Ngóh haih Hēunggóng yàhn a.
Gám néih nē?
Ngóh haih méihgwok yàhn. (From Lesson 1 《Gāaujai》)
Sample Text (Exit):
Làhm táai, néih jīujóu dīmyéung fāan hohk a?
Ngóh jyuh dāk yúhn, yiu yāt go jūngtàuh sāinji fāan dou hohkhaauh. Ngóh sáusīn hàahng léuhng go jih louh heui fóchējaahm, yìhnhauh daap ngó go jih fóchē, jyun deihtit, daap sei go jih deihtit, joi hàahng léuhng go jih louh sīnji fāan dou hohkhaauh. (From Lesson 7 《Fāan gūng》)