你地好 (nay day ho, means ‘hello everybody’)!!Because there were confirmed H1N1 case in my school, I don’t need to go to school for 14 days!! Lucky me…

So, today, we’ll learn about directions ^_^

Let’s start from the compass:

Get that?? You may skip that, cuz nobody will say this, it’s just some sort of information for you… Now, I’ll teach you some common ones:

Front: 前 (tsiiin) not thousand(千)!! They are different!!

Back: 後 (how)

Left: 左 (jor) sometimes 左手邊 (jor sau bin) meaning left hand side

Right: 右 (yau) sometimes 右手邊 (yau sau bin) meaning right hand side

Hmm… I think it’s enough for this time…

And also, the above words are usually used with the followings:

向 (herng): face/ or maybe towards  (e.g. 向左邊行 is ‘Walk towards left(hand) side’)

面/邊 (min/bin): side (as the above example) 面 is usually used with 前/後; 邊 is usually used with 左/右

轉 (journ): turn (e.g. 轉右 meaning turn right)

That’s all for today, if you have anything to ask, feel free to email me at ‘sharonlee_hk@hotmail.com’

Hi guys, sorry for not updating my blog >n< OK, let’s learn how to count!!

Canto numbers are similar to Mandarin, Korean and maybe Japnese. So if you know one of the above languages, it will be a bit easier. But nevermind, let’s start now.

1: 一 (yud)

2: 二 (yi), sometimes we’ll use 兩 (lurng). When we say numbers (e.g. bus route no.), we use 二, but when use it with a quantifier (e.g. two piece of cake), we use 兩.

3: 三 (saam)

4: 四 (say)

5: 五 (hmm) although the correct pronunciation is ‘ng’, we say ‘hmm’ at most time ^_^

6: 六 (look)

7: 七 (tsad)

8: 八 (baad)

9: 九 (ga-u) not 搞 (gao)

10: 十 (saap)

OK, that’s easy, right? I hope so, because once you remember all of them, you’ll know the followings:

For 10, 20, 30, etc. it’s so simple. e.g.:

20: 二十 (yi saap)

and same for the others, until 90

then, add a 三 after 二十 = 二十三 (yi saap saam)

guess what is it… Right! It’s twenty three! Simple as one plus one ^_^

Using the same concept, you can make up any numbers you like:

Hundred: 百 (baak)

Thousand: 千 (tsiiin)

Ten thousand: 萬 (maan)

Hundred thousand: 十萬 (saap maan)

Million: 百萬 (baak man)

Ok, I’ll teach until here, or else you’ll be mess up…

Remember, you must use 二 when counting (as I said, except with quantifiers)

Let’s make a example:

OK, practise hard!! Bye >wO

Okay. This time, let learn 3 more useful phrases.

1. 對唔住,我聽唔明. (dur-ee ngm jue, ngo teng ngm ming) means that Sorry, I don’t understand what you say

*Don’t pronounce as durry, just start with the ‘dur’ sound and end by showing your teeth a bit

對唔住=sorry

我=I/me (‘I’ in this case)

聽=hear/listen

唔= (used to make verbs negative, we’ll learn this later)

明=understand

——————————————————————

2. 廁所喺邊度? (qi solid hai bin do) means Where is the toilet?

廁所=toilet

喺=in

邊=(a very useful word to say things similar to ‘wh’)

度=(usually use with the word 邊)

——————————————————————

3. 請問…點去? (qing money…dim hur-ee) means May I know how to go to…? (we usually say ‘唔該’ (ngm gosh -ee) in front to be polite)

*hur-ee/gosh -ee, don’t pronounce as hurry, just start with the ‘hur/gosh’ sound and end by showing your teeth a bit

e.g. 唔該, 請問機場點去? mean Excuse me, may I know how to go to the Airport?                                                                                                 *機場=airport

唔該=please/thank you (after helped by someone)/excuse me

請問=may I know (A common polite asking way)

點=how

去=go to

Remember to practise!!

Another cracky video

This time, we’ll be learning 3 simple phrase, it’s not so hard, so speak more to be fluent.

1. 哈囉,我係… (haa low, ngo haa-ee*) Hello/Hi, I’m… (*=similar to ‘kur-ee’ before, starts with haa and end by show a bit of your teeth)

e.g. 哈囉,我係Sharon. means Hello/Hi, I’m Sharon

哈囉=Hello/Hi

我= I/me (‘I’ in this case)

係=be (is/am/are, etc.) (‘Am’in this case)

—————————————————————————

2. 我由…黎 (ngo yao… lay) I come from…

e.g. 我由香港黎. means I come from Hong Kong.   (*香港 (herng-gong))

我=I/me (‘I’ in this case)

由=from

黎=come

—————————————————————————

3. 我鍾意… (ngo jung yi…) I like…/I like to

e.g. 我鍾意佢 means I like him/her   /or/ 我鍾意玩 means I like to play (*玩 (waan)

我=I/me (‘I’ in this case)

鍾意=like (only for saying what you like, not what you are similar to)

So, with these phrases, you can make a short sentence! Here’s an example:

我係Sharon, 我由香港黎, 我鍾意玩.

I think you guys know what this mean if you’ve pay attention, so work hard!

Last lesson, we’ve learnt about how to greet others, if you’ve missed it, plz visit the following link: http://canto2009.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/introduction-to-cantonese-2/

So, in this lesson, I’ll teach you how to say pronouns such as ‘me’ and ‘you’ in English.

Now let’s start with some simple ones,

我 (ngo) means me or I

你 (ney) means you

佢 (kur-ee, don’t pronounce as curry, just start with the ‘kur’ sound and end by showing your teeth a bit) means he, she, it, him, her

Then, these are some more difficult ones,

我哋 (ngo-day) means we

and the same for 你哋 and 佢哋

It’s may be a bit hard to memorize, but 努力!!

p.s. 努力 (low-lik) means do your best if you didn’t read my first post

Today will be learning how to say some useful words and phrases. Let’s start with some greetings.

In Cantonese, we won’t always (but sometimes) greet others with ‘Good morning’, or ‘Good afternoon’ except at school:

In the morning, we’ll usually say:

早晨 (joe-sun) means ‘Morning’ or ‘Good morning’

In the afternoon, we don’t usually greet. So we usually say the followings to be friendly.

食飯未呀 (sik-faan-may-ar) means did you had your lunch yet?

Or simply a 哈囉 (haa-low) like English

In the evening, we’ll say

有冇約人? (yaao-mo-yerk-yun) means did you have a date/meeting? (doesn’t mean that you want to date him/her)

番屋企未? (faan-uk-kay-may) are you planning to go/going home now?

Practise more and show off to your friends ^_^

Cantonese is a language spoken in the the Pearl River Delta (in South China). It’s called 廣東話 (gwong-dong-hwa) or 粵語 (yeut-yeu) in Cantonese. It’s different from Mandarin which is spoken in mainland China.

It’s a rather difficult language to learn because you can’t write the words you speak and you won’t want to say the words you write, because you’ll be like an idiot.

Also, Chinese characters are not formed by any phonetic transcription, so you won’t be able to read out an unknown word, so, I’ll be providing some English pronunciation for you guys.

I hope you can really learn from this blog~ 努力 ( low-lik/do your best)!!

— Sharon