Best Self-study courses for Absolute Beginners in Cantonese

[LusoCanto]

Hi all,

I'm a absolute beginner at Cantonese, but I'm really keen on learning. After much researched online i've come to the sad realization that there isn't much available for learning Cantonese. The info-dump resource-type websites are nice... but don't give you much of a definite path for learning...

What I was really hoping to find was some nice, structured lessons and courses that i could follow, starting from the very basics. So far the only thing i could find was Pimsleur's Cantonese Audio course... which was absolutely horrible. Mostly full of "Memorize this sentence and then repeated it like a parrot", with no explanations on grammar or anything else.

Can anyone kindly point me to something better?

Many thanks

[Mugi]

If your Mandarin is at an intermediate level, you might want to consider 今日粤语.

The original edition of this textbook (together with the second book, 下册) used to be used by 中山大学 in their 1 year Cantonese course for non-Chinese students.

The first book introduces a lot of common grammar differences and vocab vis-a-vis Mandarin; the second book tends to focus on vocab and Cantonese culture, and is less conversation oriented (which may explain why a new edition doesn't appear to have been published yet).

You might want to post your query at Chinese Cantonese Forums too, where I'm sure you'll be able to get a lot of recommendations.

[Erbse]

The podcast Popupchinese will start a similar product for Cantonese this December. Might be just what you are looking for.

[xiaotao]

Just about every Cantonese person understands Mandarin. Since there is so little Cantonese learning material available, how about considering learning Mandarin. You can still find Cantonese videos on youtube.com. If you enjoy listening to sermons, you can to cebc.net to listen to Cantonese/Mandarin sermons.

[edelweis]

I don't know whether it is good or not, but you could have a look at the FSI Cantonese course:

http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Cantonese

[LA Guy]

1. FSI Cantonese

I believe Edelweiss's suggestion is a good one.

http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Cantonese

This course is completely free !

Here you can download the Audio conversations as a PDF file and print off sections as needed.

The audio teaching technique involves listening to a phrase a couple of times and then speaking the phrase multiple times.

I believe this type of listening and repetition practice is vital to acquiring the basic ear and speech skills ( be a parrot and copy what you hear ).

The quality of the audio is not that good ( IMO )

but I think that if you really apply yourself and copy the MP3 to a MP3 player and listen/practice while you out and about then

you can profit from this basic course.

I believe you can borrow the resources below from some libraries in major US Cities.

2. Pimsleur Cantonese

Audio CD's with practice ....

but NO TEXTBOOK

Also an absolute beginners course. Good to listen to in the car.

3. Teach Yourself Cantonese - Hugh Baker

Audio CD's with a Textbook - also not a new course ( updated in 2003 )

Depending on your level, I believe after completing 1. and 2. you will be ready for this one.

I am working through this one, although the dialoques are dated, I still feel that the multiple subjects and conversations and vocabulary will give me a good grounding in Cantonese.

Regards, LA Guy

[wai ming]

You may find the following threads helpful:

Cantonese Textbooks/Online Resources

Cantonese textbooks

[Xiwang]

The podcast Popupchinese will start a similar product for Cantonese this December. Might be just what you are looking for.

I just paid for a year because I wanted the Cantonese. Here is an excerpt from the email I got from them two weeks ago:

1. Popup Cantonese (and how to get free access)

After much development... we're finally aiming for a mid-December launch for

Popup Cantonese. We're currently putting the final touches on our first week

of content and will be producing between two and three lessons per week on an

ongoing basis. Most of our focus will be at the Absolute Beginner level to

start, with more difficult lessons coming online over time.

And now a tip on getting FREE ACCESS. When Popup Cantonese launches, we'll be

giving everyone at Popup Chinese a comparable account on the new site. This

means all paid subscribers will get paid accounts for Cantonese

free-of-charge. We're doing this mostly to say thanks to everyone who has

supported us over the years. But it also makes for a good unofficial

promotion. So signup for Popup Chinese before Popup Cantonese launches and get

access to both sites for the cost of a single subscription. This offer ends

when Popup Cantonese goes live, so move quickly. You can upgrade by visiting

http://popupchinese.com/account

[LusoCanto]

Thank you all for your advice. I'm looking forward to Popup Cantonese to start posting lessons. In the meantime the FSI Student texts seem quite good.

I've been living and working in Hong Kong for 1 year now and am making plans to stay here long term... but learning the local language can be a bit discouraging sometimes with so little resources compared to other languages and so many people trying to push you to learn mandarin instead (still don't quite get why).

Cheers

[LA Guy]

The Popup Chinese Cantonese course would be interesting for me when there is more advanced beginner / intermediate content. Since this is where it is hard to find good learning resources !

LA Guy